The fishing trip actually started 3 days prior to our departure to Lake Superior. My son called me in the evening and informed me that I would need to get a Wisconsin license and Wisconsin Trout Stamp. The next day I proceeded over to Hudson Wisconsin to get both license and stamp completed.
This being our second trip now to Lake Superior there was great anticipation on my son’s part. He was expecting to catch limits of fish and enjoy a day of catching not fishing in his new/used Skeeter WX 1850 with all of his rigging on board. My expectation was quite a bit lower. I would enjoy a beautiful day on the water proving out the internet information and ensuring that his boat and rigging all worked successfully. The bonus would be to catch some Lake Trout and maybe even an Atlantic Salmon.
Our day started with a 3:00 AM departure in the morning here in St. Paul, Minnesota to ensure that we would be on the water in the prime fishing time of 6:00 AM. My son was expressing his excitement of his new/used boat, his rigging, and internet information on Lake Superior the whole way up to the launching point. I was trying to temper his excitement and keep the expectations in the low to moderate range (you see the fish need to cooperate as well). We made a stop at a local Kwik Trip for a bathroom break and a large coffee for me to get the early morning blur out of my eyes and head.

We launched out of Loon’s Foot boat launch in Superior Wisconsin (daily launch fee was not bad at 5 dollars for the day). At 6:05 in the morning there is only one other boat at the launch at that time. Perfect! We had all of the rods rigged and in the rod holders before we opened up the motor in the big lake. By 6:15 we were out of the harbor and on our way out into the lake.
Our first stop was about 10 miles out and roughly a half mile off the southern shore (Wisconsin side/shallow side of Lake Superior). You can see this on the map by the map and the first set of waypoints closer into shore. We were in 80 ft of water and the Fish Hawk was indicating 62 to 65 degree water. We were fishing 40 to 65 feet down in the water column. Not optimal Lake Trout or Atlantic Salmon temperatures, but we fished there for 3 hrs anyway. We were marking a lot of fish down there, but no bites and no fish in the boat.
My son was getting a bit disappointed when we started changing the colors on our spoons on the rods (our plan was to use all spoons on this trip). I was winding the first/closest planer board when the bite occurred. We had our first fish and the excitement and expectations start to rise what we caught on 10 colors of standard leadcore was a Walleye just shy of 30 inches. If you look at the picture (I’m in the red rain suit bottoms) I am holding the Walleye with a big smile…..my expectation was met….a nice Walleye (bragging size). If you look closely at the fish you will notice that it has much scarring and wounds not attributable to Lampreys. Just really banged up with scarring and we released the fish back to the Lake. This fish came at the 3 hour mark in this spot. It was caught on an Orange Crush spoon with a gold patterned back at the 60 ft level at approximately 2mph as indicated on the Fish Hawk.

We stayed for about another hour in that area. About 45 minutes into that hour we caught another Walleye. Again, as stated above, this time on a Wolverine tackle Greasy Chicken spoon (orange and black pattern with a gold pattern back). At about the same depth and same spoon speed as indicated on the Fish Hawk. Shortly after that catch I told my son that this is not the right temperature to catch Salmon or Lake Trout. He really wanted to catch Salmon and Lake Trout. We packed up the rods and headed out for deeper water. The second set of waypoints on the map picture.
We started fishing. We had 10 colors of standard leadcore on the farthest planer boards, 300 ft of copper on the inner boards and down riggers set to 95 and 85 ft down respectively. The Fish Hawk was indicating 50 degree water at that level (we also checked deeper and the water was going into the mid to low 40s the deeper we lowered the Fish Hawk. It was ideal water to pursue a Salmon or Lake Trout in.

It only took about 45 minutes to an hour to hook into something big and the fight was on. The fish came on the down rigger at 95 ft. After about 20 minutes of fight and circus netting act (to be discussed later) we landed our first Lake Superior Salmon. It was a bute! It was 35 inch + fish and as nice as they come on Lake Superior. For the next hour or so I listen to my son talking smack about his catch, his fishing skills, and my poor netting skills. Again, it was the same as above with the baits, the boat speed, and the color of the lure. Do you see a pattern developing?
But wait another fish….Fish On! Less than an hour had passed and we were on another fish. This time my son brought in a Lake Trout (the fish we expected to catch) in the 20 to 24 inch range. Again, the same pattern was holding true……all rods were changed over to an orange pattern of some sort what was in the tackle box.
My rod tripping and the tattletail flag was down on the copper wire and planer board. Again, the fight was on. It took me about 20 minutes to bring the fish in and naturally my son’s expertise in netting got the fish into the boat. This time the Lake Trout was a natural Lake Trout. It measured 33 inches and is much larger than the hatchery version of Lake Trout and that was caught previously by my son. It was the same pattern, same bait, and the same color. My rod tripped in the down rigger (I reset down rig clip lighter as it was too difficult to pull it out of the clip). Another 20 to 24 inch range Lake Trout of similar size was caught about 2 hours after the big Lake Trout. You also guessed it this time the SAME, SAME and SAME. The pattern, the approach, and the plan was working this day on Lake Superior.

We were straddling the Wisconsin Minnesota border line for about a ½ to ¾ mile stretch of water in our race track pattern for fish. The location we chose was somewhat random, but is was based on our quarry ….. Atlantic Salmon. Both Lake Trout and Salmon inhabit and are comfortable in the same temperature water column.
The absolute necessity in this adventure was the Fish Hawk. Without it we would have never found the right water temperature to fish for the Salmon or Lake Trout. It is a piece of equipment that if you are going after Salmon and Lake Trout you really need to have in the boat. Water temp below and lure speed below played a big part in our success.
Secondly, our early scouting reports on the internet proved to be valid….use orange or gold. This day the spoon bait that caught the most fish was called a double orange crush (orange on both sides). It took 4 of the 5 fish in the boat including the 18 inch Walleye.
During the entire fishing time we spent refining our equipment’s performance. It turned our new clips on the planner boards were too tight and would not release. So much so to the point that we actually broke a braided line at the planner board during an early trolling pass. I think because of a nick in the line and that the board clip was set way too tight (always check your setups on the equipment). Luckily there was no fish and the board stayed afloat even with 10 colors of lead core dangling from it in the water. We found this to be somewhat true with our new down rigger clips….so I was resetting the clips to half way in the clip and that worked fine (no adjustment screw on those clips). I also noticed on the down rigger clips a square edge on both sides of the clip at the very back of the clip which would make it virtually impossible to release in the case of a fish.
It was 2:00 PM and time to head back in to Loon’s Foot boat landing. What a catch, what a day, and my expectations were exceeded. It was a great day to be fishing and catching on Lake Superior. See the other pictures of the rigging, the boat, and the Lake……beautiful!

Special Note: Once back at the boat landing we had the unexpected pleasure to go thru a Wisconsin creel check by a representative (young college student) of the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). It was an interesting creel check from the standpoint my son was talking with him about his boat and the fish. It turned out that our boat was the first that he had seen to this point in the summer with a Salmon and a large Lake Trout. It also turns out that our catch was one of the better catches of the summer that he had seen so far. He also described our catch as a mix of Lean (hatchery Lake Trout) and Siscowet (Natural Lake Trout). The natural Lake Trout is the larger and oilier Lake Trout of Lake Superior. This is to help with the genetic diversity of the lake that was lost in the past due to over harvesting (fishing), lamprey, and other environmental factors. It merits noting the work our DNR is doing to preserve the fishing of the great lakes and Lake Superior in general.