Fall Colors and Pink Salmon

A pink salmon on her redd.  She will guard it until she dies. 

Seeing migrating salmon feels primal: a direct connection with the struggle of life.  Salmon start their lives much like their trout cousins, as a fertilized egg in a well oxygenated loose gathering of river pebbles called a redd.  Long ago a few trout-like ancestors, most likely a type of char, decided a life at sea was for them and diverged into what we know as salmon today.  There are two lineages of what we know as salmon.  The salmon and trout of the genus Salmo (brown trout, Atlantic salmon, etc.) and the salmon and trout of the genus Oncorhynchus (Red band trout, pacific salmon species, etc.).  I grew up in San Diego and had never seen a salmon in the wild.  There was a time when steelhead (anadromous rainbow trout) were abundant and successfully spawned in the rivers of San Diego County.  If you can believe it, even the Tijuana River had a run of steelhead.  I came to Minnesota 6 years ago and have witnessed the run of pink salmon (Oncorhynchus gorbuscha) at least three times.  Luckily, their run also corresponds with some of the best fall color on the north shore of Lake Superior.  Pink salmon are native to the Pacific Ocean and are found from the Sacramento River in California all the way to Alaska.  They are also found near Siberia and as far south as Korea.  In the 1950s, pink salmon were introduced to the Great Lakes.  No other transplantation efforts were found to be successful for pink salmon apart from that of the Great Lakes.

Today they are thriving in the clean cold waters of Lake Superior and can be found in limited numbers in Lake Michigan.  In their historical range, pink salmon are endangered in California, Oregon and Washington but are stable in Canada and Alaska.  Pink salmon were intensely harvested for salt/smoke curing and canning and populations in the Pacific have suffered.  Strangely, pink salmon have a strict two year life cycle.  Fish hatch in the winter after fall spawning and immediately head for open water.  They spend exactly two years at sea or in the lake and return to the same stream they in which they were born to spawn and die.  A female will build a redd (Scandinavian word for nest) by thrashing her tail powerfully towards a section of loose gravel.  Seeing females pound their tail towards the bottom of the stream is a sight to see.  Their heads almost poke out of the water as their tails carve out the nest for the next generation of salmon.

Redd building

Females typically yield multiple clutches that may be fertilized by multiple males.  Once spawning is complete a female will guard her redd until death.  Death will come for all the salmon that enter the stream.  As soon as they begin the journey from the lake, their stomachs will begin to dissolve to make room for eggs in females and a massive physical transformation will occur in the males as well.  Males develop a enormous humped back which has lead to the nick name: 'humpies'.  Along with a hump males develop a hooked jaw and a rather mean looking appearance.  So, every two years the population of pink salmon turns over by at least half.  As far as I know, there are spawning runs every year and the strict two year phase would prevent these populations form interbreeding. 
    Our main purpose a few weeks past was to see the fall colors and get out of town for a bit.  The fact that salmon are in the rivers happens to be a bonus.

We got into Grand Marais a bit late on Friday night and it was already dark out.  This would not have been problem if we were staying in a hotel but most were booked and the rest were out of our budget for a spontaneous trip. We stayed at the Grand Marais Municipal campground right on the shore of Lake Superior.  I was happy there was a warm shower right across from our camp but my wife was not a fan of the parking lot style sites.  I did my best to enclose our fireplace from the parking lot by surrounding it with the car and tent on two sides and the lake and trees on the other sides.  The wind was blowing so hard and it was dipping down into the upper thirties so we decided to head into the tent for the night.  I left the lantern on outside the tent and after a while I moved it off the table because I thought the wind was going to blow it down.  The tent was bowing in almost to the ground with the big gusts.  About midnight the wind stopped and the rest of the weekend was sunny and nice: very rare weather for fall in Minnesota.  We headed up near Grand Portage to see the changing leaves and were rewarded with some fantastic vistas.

A secret north shore view.  A case of Sierra Nevada can be very persuasive though...

Later in the afternoon I met up with some friends and we tried our luck with the humpies.  They had been fishing a while and hadn't had much luck.  The fish don't really eat once they get into the stream, but I ended up getting one to bite on a flashy egg pattern and got it in.  A nice looking female.

We fished Cascade with about 20 other fisherman.  The shear number of fish in the stream is amazing.  There were hundreds of fish in every possible spawning location.  It's good to see they are doing so well.  Maybe I'll be back in two years to see the generation born this year. 

The maples were in top form

Caribou Lake

A nice male.  Thanks for the great pic Trevor!

Big brown on a Morrish Mouse

    I was camping at Beaver Creek Valley State Park over the weekend.  I love this park for many reasons including the great fishing. The creek is crystal clear and very cold. The creek in the park literally comes out of the side of a bluff. The aptly named "big spring" makes up about 90% of the water flow and if you are standing in the water anywhere near that spring your feet will likely be numb.  I don't carry a stream thermometer but the water is at least as cold as the Sierra Nevada snow melt streams of my youth.  I started out fishing only one spot the day we got there and got one on a parachute adams but that was it.

From a trip a few years back

Nice fish from a year ago

Caught 5 minutes after the above fish in the same spot

This is the spot I fished the mouse in.  I stood on the bank at the top of the pool on the left.

I caught this nice sized fish a few years back in my favorite spot.

Same as above fish.

The fight with my 3wt with the above fish.  What a battle!

    The next day I checked out some fishing on Beaver Creek outside of the park.  I found a stretch of easement and walked up stream.  I walked right up to a spot that was a lot better than I thought. About 50 fish scattered so I had to come back to that spot.  I fished up stream and got one bit but no fish before heading back to the good spot where I got a nice 14 incher off a bead head prince.  The rocks in the stream were covered with case building caddis.  I pinched a few out of the case and they were bright green.  I didn't really have anything to mimic that so I went with the prince thinking the peacock body was better than nothing.  I made a mental note to tie some caddis larva with green bodies.  I went on to another spot that was wider, warmer, and off color.  I was hopping for a big brown.  I fished a few spots with no luck but while retrieving my nymph something big chased it towards me.  I stopped and let it settle and he turned back to deeper water.  I'm pretty sure that was a big 20" plus brown.  He chased a gray scud and I thought he might want a bugger or some sort of streamer action.  No luck.  I tied on a pink squirrel and while retrieving it after a drift I heard a huge splash. I set the hook and came up empty.  This fish was tormenting me.  I finally tied on a Morish mouse and pulled it across the top of his spot a few times with no luck. 

    What really sucked about that is somewhere in that nettle infested river bank I lost my camera out of my shirt pocket.  I went back to look twice and couldn't find it. 
    Later that day after dinner I went back to one of my favorite spots that is right near the parking area for the park.  I caught one on a dry and with the last rays of light I tied on a nymph.  No luck.  I had been thinking about my Morrish mouse pattern but it was too dark to tie anything on. I decided I needed to at least try my mouse pattern once before the season ended so I walked back to the car and tied it on with the help of the trunk light. 

A little guy with par marks still.  Likely a yearling. 

Yeah, that's the water. Crystal clear. 

Beautiful beaver creek.

    I walked back down to the river and stood at the head of the pool and tried to cast my 3 inch long mouse pattern more than 10 feet.  My first cast was the best, I got it out about 20 feet and started to slowly strip it back in.  I felt a sharp tug, tug and I set the hook, with nothing on the other end.  Was that a fish?  Yeah, that had to have been a fish.  I tossed it out again the fly made a whoosh whoosh sound as it flew over my head.  A 6 wt would have been nice with such a bushy fly.  This time I plopped it down about 10 feet from the bank and just bobbed it in the current with the line pinched in my rod hand.  All of a sudden, in total darkness I heard a huge splash!  I waited just a half second, which is all I could manage with all that excitement and set the hook. Bam! Fish on!   He took off to the other side of the pool taking about 15 feet of line out. Luckily, my leader had been chewed back about 3 feet so I had about 4x instead of 6x where I tied the fly on.  I doubt fish are leader shy in total darkness.  I got the big guy in pretty quick and had a tough time with the net since I could only really hear the fish and could barely see what I was netting.  A head lamp would have been nice.   The fish looked female and was a thin 17 inches maybe.  It was pretty dark and the few pictures I took were pretty bad since I couldn't see through the view finder.  I thought since big browns ate mice in Alaska why not in Minnesota? Now I know for sure.  I had two casts and had two bites.  I only tried that one spot but I will surely try it again in more places, hopefully better prepared than the first time. 

Got him!

Mouse for dinner?

Wow, it was dark. 

Fall on the North Shore

     Although it is supposed to be nearly 90 degrees today and humid as a sauna, fall is on my mind.  The Sate Fair is here and cooler nights are in the forecast.  Soon the leaves will change colors and there are few better places to witness a sea of fall colors than the North Shore of Minnesota's Lake Superior.  The combination of rocky rivers and blaze orange maples always tempts me into a picture or 500.   There are a number of places to stay on the North Shore.  My favorite is Easy Bay Suites in Grand Marais.  The staff is friendly and rooms are freshly renovated.  Plus, the view is amazing.  The place sits right on the water.   Grand Marais is a great town too.  There are at least three restaurants that are great and one in every price range from the Crooked Spoon on the high end to My Sisters Place on the dive/but great food and beer end.  The Gunflint Tavern sits as a nice middle ground with a great beer selection and a fresh modern menu. 

Cascade River

Cascade River

Beautiful North Shore veiw

Cascade River State Park

Oberg Mountain

    I would not recommend the Beaver Bay Inn in Beaver Bay.  Unless you want unwashed sheets and/or to stay in a renovated trailer.   I would stay away unless it is the last place on the North Shore.  Unfortunately, it happened to be the only place available for us one year. 
    The other great attraction to the north shore in fall is the pink salmon run.  Even if you are not a fisherman/fisherperson the site of migrating salmon up a river right in front of your eyes offers a real connection to a species' fight for survival.  No one apparently knows how the pink salmon were introduced to the North Shore but it appears they are here to stay.  All pink salmon are naturally produced; the DNR does not stock these fish.  The salmon come into the rivers along Lake Superior in mid September and spawn through early October.  They lay their eggs in the gravely river bottom where they develop until March or April.  Then they leave the river and live in the lake for usually 2 years before they return to spawn.  Spawning is a one time event for salmon.  The males drastically change their appearance.  They grow a mean looking hook jaw and form a huge humped back giving the pink salmon their nick name, humpies.   The females generally look as they do in the lake.   Once they enter the river their stomachs collapse to make room for eggs and their bodies start to decay.  Since pink salmon do not eat while spawning in the rivers, it is best to target fish that have just entered the river and attempt to illicit an instinct strike.  This can be done by drifting either a large fly that imitates something that may be a risk to the eggs like a minnow or, as a different tactic, an egg pattern that is literally drifted inches from the fishes mouth. 
    Pink salmon are not known for being great eating fish.  When caught in the lake the flesh is firmer and better but once they enter the river they start to get a little mushy. The best bet for good eating fish is to release fish that look a little decayed and keep ones that look fresh from the lake. 
    On another note, there may be people present who are snagging or otherwise illegally "catching" fish.  This is poaching and should be reported to the DNR.  A few years back I saw a person reeling a 3/0 treble hook through a group of over a hundred salmon.  He dragged them in by their backs and tossed them in a trash bag on shore, alive.  It is possible that you will snag a fish by accident since there are so many fish but try to bring it in quickly and release it immediately.   Taking a few legally caught fish home is perfectly okay. There are so many fish in such a small spawning ground I think all possible sites for fish to develop are saturated.

Pink salmon spawning.  Notice the big one in the middle?  Yeah, that's a King salmon.  There are a few of those around but not many.

Call to report poachers:
1-800-652-9093
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/enforcement/tip.html

    The sheer number of salmon in the rivers is amazing.  Hundreds of fish school together and spawn in the pools of north shore streams.  The two places I have seen huge numbers of fish and have actually caught fish were at Cascade State Park and Temperance State Park.  At Cascade, walk up river from the highway 61 crossing to the first slow spot in the river.  There should be fish stacked up along this run for about 50 yards.  At Temperance, walk towards the lake and to a small beach on the south side of the river. There should be fish right at the river outlet to the lake. 

Temperance River State Park

    Even without fishing the North Shore is a beautiful place to visit that time of year.  I hope you will enjoy it as much as I have over the last few years.

I was recently back in San Diego for a conference and to visit my family for a few days. The last time I was there over the winter I gave some surf fishing a try. I didn't catch anything but during the winter there are not too many fish in the surf. Summer on the other hand is sand crab spawning time and the beaches are alive with all sorts of fish and little crabs diving under the sand in the breakers.
This time, I decided to get some flies at a local shop and figure out what equipment I should be using. Basically, I found out that I didn't have any of the right equipment with me. I left my 9 wt at home due to lack of carry on capacity and I figured I could borrow my Dad's 5wt. The 9wt would have been okay, maybe a little heavy. My intermediate line would work okay as a running line but I really needed a shooting head. And a striping basket, for sure. I know, a striping basket for surf/beach fishing sounds funny but, as I found out later, they are absolutely required. I read on a forum somewhere that a pretty nice striping basket could be made from a small dish tub and a nylon cinching belt. In fact, a very nice striping basket can be made form the a fore mentioned parts and everything, including a waterproof box for my camera, can be found at walmart for less than $15 (the striping basket parts totaled $4 the waterproof box was $11). So, with a under-weighted rod, no shooting head, and some pretty bulky heavy flies, I tried surf fishing.

Torry Pines State Beach

I was standing about where this is about to crash.  Not as much fun with a striping basket and a rod as it is while swimming

Surf fishing with a trout rod.  Don't try this at home. Notice the size of the fly I was trying to cast.  It's almost as long as my reel. 

Can you tell I really set myself up behind the eight ball? Yeah, here we go. My first tip is make sure the striping basket is in the right spot. There is nothing worse than striping in a bunch of line directly into the tumbling surf. If you think a current does bad stuff with striped in line you should see what the surf can do. Second tip: pick a beach that has some time between breakers. I tried Torry Pines State beach first and really had a tough time. I waded in about up to my waist which is right about where the shore break was crashing. The waves were about 1.2 seconds apart which gave me about 10 feet to cast before the next wave would crash and send my line every which way. The idea is to wait for a wave to break in front of you and cast between waves. Since there was no time between waves, there was no place to fish. I left defeated and pretty wet. I was fishing in my trunks with my shirt on and I was soaked. I got back to the car and realized I forgot a towel too. Now I was wet, fishes and very frustrated.

This sport did not exist in San Diego when I moved away. 

I headed back up north to try and find a beach with more spaced out waves. Once I go up to Carlsbad I found a nice stretch of beach that was flatter and seemed to be just what I was looking for. I waded out and realized what my next problem was going to be. It turns out, that I can cast a surf fly with a 5wt about 40 feet which is about 40 feet too short. I had huge open stretches of water to cast to but I could only get my fly out maybe 50 feet if I really tried hard. I see why a 7wt with a nice shooting head is standard equipment. Once again I couldn't shake the skunk and I went back in.

Carlsbad State beach

I learned a few things. Having the right tool for the job is just as important in fly fishing as all other endeavors. Its just too bad my wife doesn't understand why I need ANOTHER fly rod and another fly line and oh yeah, another reel that won't get destroyed in salt water. Maybe if I move back to San Diego I'll get the right stuff but for now, maybe next time I'm in town I'll try out the sweet water river with my 3 wt for some trout.

I was up in north central Minnesota over the 4th of July and again a few weeks back.  There are not too many trout streams up there but I tried my luck in both of them.  The Straight river flows near Park Rapids MN and is one of the premier trout streams in the state.  Apparently, not were I was fishing.  It was choked with vegetation on both sides, which made walking the river almost impossible.  I think I saw 1 trout but there were too many chubs hitting my fly to have a fair chance at the trout.  There has to be better spots somewhere on the stream but I would skip the spots near Osage and try down near Highway 71.  What the Straight lacked in fish quantity it made up for in absolute stunning scenery. I'll add some pictures soon. 

I also fished Stoney Brook that flows into Upper Gull Lake near Nisswa MN.  This stream is spring fed and ice cold even in late July. Stoney Brook is catch and release for all brook trout and has quite a decent population because of that.  The main difficulty is finding a spot were a cast doesn’t spook all the trout in the pool. It runs slow and gin clear close to the parking area. Try heading up stream and fish moving and broken water for better luck. I ended up catching 4 in a few hours.

A respectable sized native brook trout

He decided to hang out by my feet for a second

One of the only runs that was fishable