Awesome day

[tjsa]

Got out for some Coho's on Superior tribs. Didn't take long. My bud got one on his 3rd cast while I was tying up. Then I got my first on my 2nd cast while my bud was taking care of his first fish. A few minutes later my bud gets another one, smaller, tried to take a pic but batteries were toast in my camera and I did not think to bring along extras. I usually have them in my camera bag, but since we were wading a deep river, I put the camera in a ziplock bag to reduce space in my pack. I was reserving it for fish. Lunch stayed in the cooler in the truck, only brought one Kitkat choclate bar with me.

Shortly after that, on my 5th cast, got another one about 23.5", another male. We did not want to haul this weight of fish in our packs up the river 2 miles, so we put them in a bag and cached them under some low cedars out of the sun. Off we go upstream, and I get another slightly smaller female. That one went into the pack. Got a 4th, but it was a very small male, maybe 14", but ready to spawn, milt spewing from it from the short time it was out of the water.

I so wish I could have had an operational camera, as the sky above this river was teeming with bald eagles, lots of immatures, all sizes, and some matures. My bud saw one pick off a pink salmon in a shallower section. We did not spend a single minute(and we were fishing for 4 hrs. at least)without seeing at least one eagle overhead, sometimes over a dozen at times. Pretty awesome spectacle.

Surprisingly, no bear tracks on the river bank. We have seen tracks before, and individual bears, and sows with cubs, but no evidence of them this day.

Anyhow, we went quite far upriver, and no Coho's to be found. Guess they are just starting to come in. Got back down to where we started, and my bud gets another one, the biggest of the day. While he is taking care of it, I get an absolutely solid hit. Start to bring it in, and it just has nothing to do with that, bulldogging/twisting/thrashing/ and running out line all the way. Caught a glimpse of it 15 ft. out, and thought, why is this fish this size being so difficult?

Got it closer, and amid the reflection of the rising sun off of the water, me moving downstream to pull the fish upstream for better vision with my polaroid sunglasses, and it all became clear...........COASTER BROOK TROUT!!!!!! approx. 3.5 lbs. These things do not know the meaning of quit. Soon as I realized what I had on, I backed off fighting the fish hard. Took another 2-3 minutes coaxing it at least to get it to the bank, then corralled it between my knees to get the hook out.

Sorry, no pics of it, they are OOS. Swam away strong.

We tried 2 other places, ran into OOS coasters again, along with a Coho which missed my spinner on first attempt, 2nd attempt, the lure was fouled up, so the fish could not get a good grip on it to be hooked. Didn't come back for a 3rd try. Stopped in at Rossport to see if a friend of ours was there. He and his wife had just arrived 30 min. previous. Hadn't seen them for over 10 yrs., so it was a nice 1 hr. GTG.

Off we went, and hit a 3rd trib. My bud got his 4th Coho, 3rd kept, and released a nice rainbow. I got squat here.

 

On the way back, we hit a logjam of tractor/trailers, and other vehicles. Trucker off the road. Really bad place to go off also, carring a load of paper which caught fire. Not sure if he made it, or his passenger. Was still smoldering when we were finally able to pass by. Couldn't see the truck as it was down a 45 ft. embankment.

 

Only pics I have are from yesterday at home on the kitchen counter.

 

 

 

 

Dan Bouck, a pm is forthcoming, as I see we do not have a salmon entered yet.

[asdve23rveavwa]

Great post!! Some day, I'm going to have to head up that way for a couple of days. I've been up a few times, but, never got to stop and fish Get the odd Coho down here on my favorite pier, but, I'd love to fish for those coaster brookies in season!!

[TJQ]

Congrats!!!

[danbouck]

[Leecher]

Great report and pics Tom

Got to love getting into steady action like that

Doesn't get any better then that!!!

Thanks for sharing your day with us

Jacques

[johnnyb]

What a day indeed!!! Nicely done....thanks for posting it up!!

[ehg]

Great place to live if your into fishing

 

Going to a trib and catching big coaster brookies, fresh coho's, bows and seeing bald eagles sounds awesome to me.

 

Thanks for posting

[Joey]

That sure was a great day, way to go. Great report.

 

Joey

[Guest Johnny Bass]

Yup! A great place for an outdoorsman to retire! Awesome fishing, hunting, scenery and fresh air!

[ctranter]

Those fish look nice and clean, I probably would have fallen into the river seeing a nice unexpected brookie like that. Congrats!

[Guest ThisPlaceSucks]

nice lookin' 'hos...

cool about the coaster too!

[splashhopper]

[limeyangler]

Great report!

 

I saw that show on TV about catching coasters...your report was better!

[tjsa]

Great report!

 

I saw that show on TV about catching coasters...your report was better!

 

Thanks Simon. We were after Salmon, but the coasters got in the way a couple of times. They are closed now. Glad to see them though. A rehabilitation effort has been ongoing for a few years. We have never gotten into this many accidentally. Maybe one skinny one around 14-16" on occasion, not the 2-3+ lbers. we ran into.

[highdrifter]

Woooohh action packed budday!!

 

And how nice it must be that you can keep a fish every now and then and refill the game freezer..

 

you lucky bumba.