Just wrapped up a 10 day trip up North chasing chrome on Superior. Took a while to figure ‘em out but we knocked the snot out of them by the end!
A cold front at the start of the week made fishing the rapids in the Soo very slow, didn’t see anyone catching fish. Heading up North to fish between the Soo and Wawa, a lot of the rivers were at peak flow and chocolate milk, struggled for a few more days to find good water.
Finally after days of gruesome hiking and figuring out the drift, we started to hook up! And boy did it click - I went 3 fish for 4 drifts all of a sudden and then nonstop action for the rest of the trip. These fish were stunning man, healthy clean silver chrome so bright you could almost see your reflection. We heard of guides pulling 50+ fish out some days, and after this experience I 100% believe it.
It’s certainly rewarding working for these fish - I was high as a kite on dopamine when I hooked those first few. I had a buddy who showed up around the end of the trip when the bite was hot who hooked into fish right off the bat and then sat down to take a break. I looked at him like he was crazy, “What the hell are you sitting down for!?”, he didn’t appreciate how hard we worked for those fish and that we were in Candyland! After days of searching and making adjustments to figure out the bite, it feels like fishing man!! That guy was just catching, which is arguably less fun in my opinion.
We found that the bite would be hot when we first started working a pool, typically pull out a few fish and then slow down quickly. Raising the float and adding glass beads to get down deeper helped keep consistent action. We were using 5lb leaders and being subtle with our drifts so I don’t think we spooked them, my guess is that there still weren't very many fish up yet, but the ones that were there were active.
Fish ONLY hit roe for us, we went through the entire tackle box; worms, beads, bugs, spinners, you name it with no luck. Probably burned through 200+ roe bags.
Water temp was 36-38F, baro ~980, air temp was around 0 at the start, and closer to 10+ by the end, new moon in the middle of the trip
Bear hunting was cut short, still a lot of snow on the logging roads and saw no tracks or scat. I guess they were still sleeping haha. Going to save the tag for moose hunting in the fall.
By the end I could tell I was fished out when my vision was blurry and spinning, I guess there’s a limit to how far beer and energy drinks will take ya after all.
Highly recommend making the drive up, it’s such a beautiful and fruitful part of the country relatively close to home. Might go back up in June!
Tight lines everyone!
Superior Steelhead did not disappoint, Fish report
