St. Louis River & Hayward, Wisconsin Fishing Report 6-29-14

On Saturday, I had an overdue opportunity to get my father Jim on the water to do a little scouting on the St. Louis River and harbor in Superior.  This was my first chance to get up there this season, and I needed to get a feel for what was happening.  The reports I’ve heard haven’t been stellar lately, and I think I found out why.  When we left my house it was 80 degrees, sunny, and humid.  When we got to the landing in Superior, it was 50 degrees and foggy with NE winds.  Water temps were 58 degrees.  Gotta love the big drink!!!  NE winds have been constant in Duluth and Superior this year, and those poor people haven’t been able to climb out of winter yet!  That said, I wasn’t surprised that the fishing was slow.  We found some fish but had to work at it and move around a lot.  Trolling crankbaits in 6′ – 8′ of water produced some nice eaters for the livewell as well as a 25″ brute that we released.  I would think this bite will continue to get better if some warm weather patterns can push into that area.  Here’s hoping it does!!!  Thanks dad for another great day.  You’re a loyal scout!

Unstable weather patterns have hit the Hayward area over the past several days with lots of rain in the evenings after hot and humid days.  With conditions like that, you never know what to expect from day to day.  Matt Lamb from Woodbury, MN and his pal Michael Smith from Cottage Grove, MN showed up on Sunday ready to catch smallmouth.  One small problem…  The smallmouth weren’t ready for them!!!  We spent the first few hours of our day watching fish follow our lures while only landing 3 small fish that weren’t even worthy of pulling out the camera.  After weighing our options, we decided to move to a different lake.  Great choice!  Although we had nasty winds to contend with, we were able to put one heck of an afternoon together with many nice fish between 18″ and 20″.  Matt landed a 19 3/4″ that was our largest.  Plastic worms in 5′ – 8′ of water caught most of our fish in some extremely difficult conditions.  Matt and Michael did an awesome job of rolling with the punches throughout the day, and I’m glad they were rewarded with some great fish.  This was a great example of knowing when to pull the pin on Plan A and move to Plan B.  Water temps held pretty steady around 70 degrees throughout the day.  Thanks for hanging in there guys.  I had a blast!!!