FISH REPORT 2023
Link to HOME, OLDER FISH REPORTS
September 3,2023
A good family trip
The crew today was Gene, Trevor, Rachael, and their sons Riley and Dane. The lake was calm with sone swells from the south west. We headed out to the coho grounds and dropped lines from surface to 70 feet. There were lots of bait fish and soon some trout marks on the fish finder. We trolled through a few fish with no hits. It looks like the coho bite has cooled off. We dropped lines to 120 feet and deeper to fish for trout. It didn't take long and a nice trout was on the line. Riley pulled the first one in. Dane the second one. We ended up with five nice trout in the box, never did get a bite from a salmon.
August 14, 2023
Are they gone?
Robin, Bruce and I went out in Bruce's boat. We went out at 9:00 in the morning, our usual time. Robin missed the first fish, a nice coho that hit at 60 feet. Our theory is that the coho swam with the boat telling all the other fish that it was a trap, don't bite those lures. The fishing was slow, nothing suspended, so we dropped lines to the bottom in 135 feet. Then we started to pick up trout. There was a lot of unproductive water but right at the end things picked up and three of the four lines ended up in the boat. Our catch was six trout and one pink salmon.
Sunday, August 13, 2023
Fish in the evening for salmon
Our friends from Duluth. Elyice, Donald, and their son Cam fished with Gene and I. We fished the 130 to 150 foot depths but fished in the upper 70 feet of water. Action was slow from 4:00 to 6:00, then all the bait started to raise off the bottom and fish started to bite. We caught 7 trout, and 4 coho. Looks like the salmon bite is slowing down
Donald and Cam with a nice catch
Wednesday, August 9, 2023
It's salmon time
Mike was up to work on our deer camp in Helltown. We finished the job at noon and came back to Lac La Belle at noon. After we both had a good nap we loaded the boat and went out looking for trout and salmon. Lines went in just before the trap net and it wasn't long and a coho hit on the 60 foot line. They hit the 70 foot line next. It was a little hard to land because we were fighting foot and a half waves. We made two passes through the fish and caught 9 salmon and 1 trout. Lots of salmon around now. One was a 9 pound coho, the largest coho I have caught in Lake Superior. It is definitely a different year on the big pond.
Mike with a 9 1/2 pound coho.
Tuesday, August 1, 2023
They are still suspended.
John Quivonen wanted to go out and I told him that he couldn't go unless Paul Mohar came with him. Paul said, "twist my arm" and a trip was planned. Gene came over and we headed out. The plan was to fish in 130 to 150 feet of water but only from 70 feet to 30 feet down. We set lines at 30, 40, 60 and 70 feet along with two dipseys. Sliders were also put on the deeper lines. It didn't take long and we picked up a nice trout. A coho came next and it gave us lots of trouble as they are getting larger and really put up a fight. Lines were pulled at 1:30 and we headed in with 5 trout and 2 coho.
Friday, July 28
Evening trip
The family was here so we took Lauri, Peter , and Landy out for an evening trip to look for salmon. We left the dock at about 6:30 and headed out to an area just past the mid bay trapnet. We were marking a lot of bait fish in about 130 feet of water. Lines were set at 35, 40, 60 and 70 feet. Sliders were put on the deeper lines. Two dipseys were also put out at 100 feet. It didn't take long and fish started to hit. We went through one spot and the fish hit so fast that the only lines that were left in the water was the dipseys. The fish kept hitting like this and we were going to quit with 10 fish in the box. We caught fish number ten and started to pull lines. Another trout came to the boat and then a king hit on the last line. We had to maneuver the boat and soon we had a 12 pound king in the boat. A fitting end to a great trip
Tuesday, July 25
Family Outing
It was a good afternoon fish with the family. We had Kris, Kamden, and Emmet as the crew. We started way inside of the green can and trolled out past it with no luck. We didn't even see any fish on the fish finder. Finally we got a fish in 85 feet of water. We trolled out to 140 and hit a few humps. The fish have moved and we couldn't find them. Finally we got a fish on the 40 foot line. We marked and caught a couple more fish down 40 to 50 feet in 140 to 160 feet of water. Kamden got a nice salmon right up to the boat but Kris decided to play tennis with it. He got it in the net and then launched it a couple of feet in the air. The hook stayed in the net, the fish flew back into the water and the air turned blue with some very appropriate (or not appropriate) language. We ended up with 4 nice trout.
Friday, July 21
Channel trip
Bruce and I joined Harley in his boat and we headed to the channel. We set up past the green can and trolled up into the channel. We were trolling in 85 to 110 feet of water and did mark some nice trout but they didn't hit. When we turned and headed south they started to hit. It didn't take long and we had a box full with 14 nice sized trout in the box. It appears that the fish are hitting when you troll with the current.
Monday, July 10
Out to channel
Fished with Bruce in his boat. He had been out on Sunday and caught his 5 fish in just over an hour. We trolled through that spot and only caught one trout. The suspended salmon seem to have disappeared too. Bruce wanted to hit the channel so up came the lines and out to the channel we went. We set up just past the trap net and down went the lines. There were so many baitfish on the fish finder that you couldn't see if there were any trout. The schools were 50 foot thick. We got up into the channel and did find some nice 6 to 8 pound trout. When we cleaned them their stomachs were full of small herring. Another great day on the water.
The lake is full of small herring.
Small herring
Saturday, July 1
They are still there
Dean and his girlfriend Debbie came up to the Keweenaw for a little vacation. Dean and I have been talking about him coming up to fish for many years, he finally made it. The lake was calm and we headed out to 140 feet of water. Lines went down and soon a trout hit on the "usual". Debbie got to haul in the first fish. There were a lot of humps of fish showing up on the finder and the action was steady. Gene was the deck hand and he was busy setting lines. There were dipsey's and shallow lines set for salmon and two deep lines for trout. We ended up with 14 trout and one salmon before we pulled lines at 12:00 and headed for port. A very good day on the lake.
Tuesday, June 27, 2023
Perch
I took the red boat out to look for perch in Lac La Belle. I tried my favorite spot in 28 foot of water. I did catch some smaller perch. Then I went scouting around the rock piles. No fish there so I went back to where I started and just stayed in one spot. The longer I stayed the more perch showed up. After 5:00 the fish really started bitting. It was impossible to fish two rods. Looks like there are enough for two meals.
Wednesday, June 21
Longest Day fishing
I repaired a couple of my downriggers and needed to go out and test them. Marge and I got the Kala Moiakka ready for a shakedown cruise. We left the dock around 10:00 and headed out to fish the 140 foot depths where the fish have been. Marge was the captain and I was the deckhand and she took us out to the fishing grounds. There were marks on the graph before the first line went down. I would put one line down and then move to the other side of the boat to set a second line. Before the second line hit the bottom there was a fish on the first line. We were catching fish after fish till Marge said that her arms hurt and she didn't want to haul any more fish.
The purpose of this trip was to get all the downriggers and dipsey divers working so we "left fish to find no fish". We were successful at getting all the lines in the water but that didn't last long. I marked some fish near the bottom so I dropped a couple of lines to 100 feet and soon they tripped with the largest trout of the trip coming on the suspended lines way off the bottom. We caught our limit of 10 fish just past noon. A wonderful day on the water. Now I have one downrigger that needs repair and fish to clean.
A nice 11 pounder headed for the smoker
Cooler full
Thursday, June 8, 2023
Scouting trip
Took the red boat out to do some scouting in the bay. I had the camera with me and was going to look for whitefish. I put it down and only saw weeds. I trolled the bay from the wall to the green can and only marked one fish. That was boring so lines came up and I headed out to 140 feet where Paul and I caught 10 on Sunday. The fish were there and as soon as my trolling line hit the bottom there was a fish on. I let that fish drag until a second fish hit. Both fish came up and were put into the box. I picked up another single and then a double. That made my limit of 5 so up came the trolling line and down went the jigging tackle. I didn't have bait so I tried a gulp minnow. The fish would hit it but not stick. Two fish were caught and released. Note to myself, bring bait next time.
Sunday, June 4, 2023
Fishing with Paul
Paul came down and we headed out. Not sure where the fish were so we trolled for a while and caught three. That spot was marked on the GPS and we started bobbing. Seven more were caught bobbing so we headed in at 1:00 with 10 fish in the box.
Thursday, May 25, 2023
Memorial Day Starts
We put the boat in Thursday afternoon and went out for some shallow water trolling. We caught 2 trout in 20 feet.
Dave made us our salad, his famous bloody marys. They were delicious as usual.
Dave, about to make a masterpiece.
Now that is a bloody mary.
Friday, May 26, 2023
Calm lake
Friday, fished 200 feet, drifting, Bruce caught only one. Dave put a hex on his geppo, so he moved over to his rod. The hex must have bounced from the geppo to his rod. He only caught one more fish. Fred caught the first fish. Every drift was different. About 11:00 the fish quit hitting. Moved and tried another spot. Headed in at noon with 12 trout. Time for more bloody marys.
A relaxing evening
Fred, Bruce and Dave with
todays catch
Saturday, May 27, 2023
Good breakfast day
Saturday, headed out to same spot at 9:00. Dropped anchor and we were in the right spot. We started off with a double. Fish were coming pretty regular. Then we swung out of our good spot while still on the anchor rope. We pulled anchor to do a drift but another boat moved in on us and we couldn't do the drift that we wanted so we moved. We started another drift and picked another spot. Bruce finally broke the "hex" and caught a trout. Dave will put some good luck pixie dust on his lure tomorrow. We ended up with 16 trout. We headed in at 1:00 for a nap, salad, and a trout dinner.
Still a calm lake
Dave having a good time
Sunday, May 28, 2023
Calm again
Dead calm again. Three boats in the 200 foot hole so we fished the 204 foot hole. Fishing was slow but we did pick up a couple of fish there. Fred broke one fish off and lost about 100 foot of line. We did a couple of other drifts and he felt something on his line so he pulled it up and he had snagged his broken line and we recovered his lure. He should have bought a lottery ticket. We moved and tried the rock piles, no fish just some rocks. There is an abandoned net there that we need to have removed. After that we went out to try some more 200 feet and caught a couple more fish to give us a total of 7 for this trip.
The lure that didn't get away.
Monday, April 10, 2023
Shakedown Cruise
The ice has finally left Green Bay. The forecast wasn't too good but we went anyway. The Menominee river mouth was full of walleye boats and we worked our way out past them to open water. When we got out to our fishing hole the waves were from about a foot and a half to two footers. Not very ideal for jigging. We got the troulling motor going and started fishing. It didn't take to long and I wished I had brought oatmeal cookies. (They are my seasick remedy) I didn't have any but there were a couple of soda crackers packed just in case. Steve and I both were into them.
We fished a couple of spots for about an hour when the trolling motor quit. The batteries had gone dead. We were done so we headed in to try the channel for some green slimmy walleyes. No luck there either.
The crew today was Steve, Frank and I in Steve's boat and Steve List and Mark in his boat. No strikes, No hits and No errors today. We will return when the weather is nicer and we WILL catch some whitefish.