All of the Covid hype last spring had us convinced that while we should participate in outdoor activities, we should do so close to home. \u00a0Once my 2019 license expired in March, I made the tough decision to pass on fishing across the border this year.\u00a0 I\u2019m personally not too worried about Covid, but figured keeping my Minnesota plates on this side of the river would be a good move this year.<\/span><\/p>\n But something has been bugging me.\u00a0 For a while, long before this Covid thing showed up.<\/span><\/p>\n You know the Jimmy Buffett song called \u201cOne Particular Harbor?\u201d\u00a0 He sings of a place, maybe in the south Pacific or the Caribbean, where no matter what is happening in the rest of the world, there is shelter and relief and calm in this hidden bay.\u00a0 Love that song.\u00a0 As it turns out for me, there\u2019s this one particular river.\u00a0 You know the one.\u00a0 It flows north. Presidents have fished there.\u00a0 Wild trout and salmon abound.\u00a0 There\u2019s something about this place, a feeling you don\u2019t get from other rivers.\u00a0 The way the river sounds.\u00a0 The way the woods smell from the aspen leaves.<\/span><\/p>\n I used to go up at least 3 or 4 times per fall, and the comradery with friends was as much a part of the fun as actually catching the fish.\u00a0 But times change, and what used to be a trip I would make several times a year became once a year, and now in 2020 I realize I hadn\u2019t walked the red clay trails since 2017.<\/span><\/p>\n I made my first trip up here in the spring of \u201988.\u00a0 Took a few years before I ever actually caught anything, and a few more before I really had a clue.\u00a0 Now, 30 plus years later, it is somewhat likely, but still a long way from a guarantee that I\u2019ll\u00a0 bring a wild steelhead to hand on any given day.<\/span><\/p>\n So I decided- Covid be damned, I\u2019m heading up.\u00a0 And if I was going to do it, I wasn\u2019t going to settle for a day shot or a weekend.\u00a0 No, I wanted a midweek, 2-day shot.\u00a0 Getting time off from work was no problem, getting time off from home was a little trickier, but I was granted a 2-day pass.\u00a0 I also bought a short-term Wisconsin license, the first time since I turned 16 that I didn\u2019t buy an annual license.<\/span><\/p>\n Gunnar is almost always up for these trips, and we left my driveway at 5:30 am.\u00a0 There was a time when we would have left at 3:30 am to ensure being on the river at first light, but I\u2019m getting too old for that shit.\u00a0 They\u2019ll have to bite when we get there.<\/span><\/p>\n The days we had slated out for our trip coincided with the onset of winter.\u00a0 Forecast for the trip had highs in the mid-30s and plenty of opportunity for snow.\u00a0 We\u2019ve seen worse.\u00a0 We\u2019ve done this enough to know how to dress for the cold, and the inclement weather might discourage others.<\/span><\/p>\n We found ourselves at a familiar parking spot at about 8:30 am. Dashboard temp on the Ram said it was 33 degrees.\u00a0 The snowfall from the night before weighed heavy on the boughs of the spruce and pine, as well as covering the ground.\u00a0 I was suited up and ready to go in a few minutes while Gunnar took a bit more time.<\/span><\/p>\n Ironically, he often complains of other fishing partners putzing around with their gear, taking forever to get ready.\u00a0 Well apparently it takes a while to find just the right balance of Marlboro lights, Funyuns and spawn bags to bring down to the river as he sifted through all 6 duffel bags he brought with.\u00a0 No worries, I was in no particular hurry.\u00a0 And the waiting gave me time to contemplate days spent on this river.<\/span><\/p>\n In the early 90s I was lucky to have my friend Scott Schumacher allow me to accompany him for a couple of days.\u00a0 This was the turning point for catching fish with any consistency here.\u00a0 Turns out there are no secret flies, no secret rigs, no secret colors of yarn, no secret spots.\u00a0 Instead, he showed me where to park, where the trails go, the kinds of spots to fish, and where exactly in those spots that the steelhead were likely to be.\u00a0 Every corner, every hole, every run has a name, and someone catches fish out of every one of these spots. I know this is one of the many reasons for this river\u2019s allure.\u00a0 Walk up to group of steelhead anglers from this area and say \u201cSauna Hole\u201d, \u201cMcNeill\u2019s\u201d, or \u201cBachelors\u201d and you\u2019ll have everyone\u2019s attention.\u00a0 These spots were probably named before anyone on the river today was born, and will continue to be known as long as the silver fish with the pink stripe make their migration.<\/span><\/p>\n As I said, I used to go up several times a year, maybe 3 or 4 times in the fall and sometimes once in the spring.\u00a0 Somewhere along the way I realized that the spring fishing up there didn\u2019t do it for me.\u00a0 Get up there too early in the year and you might find the snow to be neck deep, get there too late and all of the fish are on the spawning gravel.\u00a0 Then the 3 or 4 fall trips turned into one fall trip.\u00a0 And then this fall I realize it was 2017 since I last was there, and maybe 2015 since I had been there with Gunnar. When you are young and hear from men with families talk about how hard it is to get away it doesn\u2019t make sense.\u00a0 It makes sense now.<\/span><\/p>\n After 5 minutes or so Gunnar\u2019s vest was balanced and we were heading down the snowy path.<\/span><\/p>\n We often bring multiple rods down to the river.\u00a0 I usually bring two, he brings two or three.<\/span><\/p>\n My rods to choose from include:<\/span><\/p>\n Nymph rod, 9\u2019 #8, rigged with floating fly line and strike indicator.\u00a0 There is no more lame way to fish for steelhead than this.\u00a0 We pretend we\u2019re fly fishing but in reality we\u2019re just bobber fishing with a fly rod.\u00a0\u00a0 It takes the least amount of skill too; just roll cast your ping pong ball sized cork up there and watch the bouncing ball.\u00a0 And repeat.\u00a0 In clear water conditions, this works well.\u00a0 I still hate it.\u00a0 As a protest to this stupid way of fishing, the rod I have rigged for this is my shittiest eight weight, and the reel hanging on it is nothing special.\u00a0 We first saw the effectiveness of this technique when we snuck up on a legendary Brule steelheader [you know who you are!].\u00a0 We knew he had a fish on before we could even see him in the run, as we could hear his fancy clicker drag reel squawking like a crow every time the fish took off.\u00a0 We helped him land the fish, and he actually seemed a little embarrassed.\u00a0 When I went to unhook the fish for him the reason for embarrassment was obvious.\u00a0 At first I thought his split shot had slid down to the fly, but no, turns out he tied his nymphs on little jig heads.\u00a0 Now all the fancy Euro-nymphers have special hooks to fit special brass beads to tie up fancy jig nymphs.<\/span><\/p>\n Drift rod. 9\u2019 #8, rigged with a running line and slinky, yarn fly on the end.\u00a0 This has become old school, not many guys do this anymore, but it was what dominated in the 90s.\u00a0 For some reason it doesn\u2019t seem to work as well as it used to, but I still like it; get into the top end of a run, pitch your rig up and across and feel the slinky tick through the rocks.\u00a0 If it stops set the hook.\u00a0 It\u2019s usually going to be a snag, but those times when that snag pulls back\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n Swinging rod, 9\u2019 #8 rigged with a sink tip line.\u00a0 Arguably the most satisfying way to hook a steelhead, as there is nothing like the WHOMP! when you are swinging a big black bunny leech in a tailout and a big chromer grabs it.\u00a0 Plan on a lot of time in between grabs if you decide to fish this way though, and I wouldn\u2019t bother unless conditions are prime: clear water, good numbers of fish around, 40 degree or warmer water, and not too many other anglers frothing the water. Pretty easy way to fish\u2014cast, mend, let it swing. Contemplate your existence. \u00a0Look at the birds.\u00a0 Look for a squatch. \u00a0Notice how the sky up here is the bluest blue there can be.\u00a0 [Sidebar\u2014I used to think that the sky really was bluer up there, maybe due to the big lake.\u00a0 Turns out that no matter where you are the sky actually looks bluer in the fall.\u00a0 Google it.]\u00a0 I remember one trip when I landed three big ones swinging flies.\u00a0 I was talking pretty smart around the campfire that night.\u00a0 Probably didn\u2019t catch another one that way for two years.<\/span><\/p>\n Spinner rod. Haters are gonna hate.\u00a0 And they can suck it because this is one of my favorite ways to fish for steelhead.\u00a0 Turns out I would rather catch a steelhead on a spinner than nymphing.\u00a0 I like spinner fishing because it seeks out active fish, I never cast to the same spot twice.\u00a0 Cast.\u00a0 Step. Repeat.\u00a0 You have to pay attention; you have to keep the blade spinning, keep it down in the strike zone, but not too deep or you\u2019ll get snagged. I attribute all success I\u2019ve had on swinging flies to what I\u2019ve learned by catching them on spinners; a steelhead that will grab a spinner just might grab a well-presented fly instead.<\/span><\/p>\n Gunnar\u2019s quiver is a mix of long spinning rods, and a few fly rods.\u00a0 He cares even less about what people think about his fishing techniques than I do, so the fly rods don\u2019t get a lot of play.\u00a0 My favorite is his Loomis GLX fly rod with an Abu Garcia Diplomat fly reel from the 1980s on it.\u00a0 It is stupid how many steelhead he has caught on the $30 reel.\u00a0 Diplomatic Immunity?\u00a0 It\u2019s just been revoked.\u00a0 If you ever find yourself in a situation where you must produce a Brule River Steelhead or face dire consequences, you would be wise to subcontract the work to Gunnar. Drive him up there, but stop at the Bait Box in Superior so he can stock up on flatfish and spawn bags. Send him down the river with a flatfish on one rod, and bobber\/spawn on the other.\u00a0 Follow with net and camera because some shit is about to get caught.<\/span><\/p>\n On this session I had my slinky rod and nymph rod, Gunnar had 2 spin and 1 fly.\u00a0 We fished through many favorite spots without much to show; I caught a 12\u201d resident brown on a moss green yarn fly and that was it.\u00a0 Despite the cold and snow there were a few other anglers out.<\/span><\/p>\n We decided to change to a different section of the river, so we headed north, down to a favorite parking spot along the gravel road that goes to the mouth.\u00a0 The snow concealed the trail that neither of us had been down for a few years and we ended up bushwhacking until we ran into the river.\u00a0 We worked our way up without any action until in a non-descript shallow run [I\u2019m sure there is a name for this spot, but I don\u2019t know it, and I have yet to check The Map] I had a savage strike on a spinner.\u00a0 It was so hard and fast that my line pretty much broke on impact, it was as if I had been bitten off by a pike.\u00a0 I speculated this out loud, Gunnar pointed out that there was only two feet of line hanging off the end of my rod tip, so how could it have been a bite off?\u00a0 I concluded it must have been a bad spot in the line.\u00a0 While I rerigged, Gunnar got busy with a flatfish and came up with a nice chromer on his second cast. <\/p>\n After fishing all day without much action and then running into two fish in succession convinced us we had run into a pod of chromers fresh from the lake.\u00a0 It must have been a pod of two, because nothing else happened. We hiked out before dark and headed back to town, dodging deer all along the way, with one really close call in town.\u00a0 We secured lodging for the night and walked down to the bar.\u00a0 As a younger man I would sometimes stay here until after midnight.\u00a0 On one wild night we somehow forgot to pay our tab.\u00a0 I realized this the next morning on the river.\u00a0 \u201cDid you pay the waitress?\u00a0 I didn\u2019t.\u00a0 Uh-oh.\u201d\u00a0 We sheepishly showed up around noon, \u201cHey, we did a bad thing\u2026uh\u2026last night\u2026\u201d\u00a0 The barmaid on duty was already reaching for our tab.\u00a0 We left a big tip.<\/span><\/p>\n This night it was pretty quiet, we chatted with the few locals that were there.\u00a0 When a Neil Young song came on the radio Gunnar asked the barmaid to turn it up.\u00a0 We then all talked about how awesome Neil Young is instead of listening to the song.\u00a0 The guy next to me told me a tale that involved a Neil Young concert and a Scarface style pile of cocaine. And then someone\u2019s phone rang; the ringtone was John Cena\u2019s theme.\u00a0 You can get bacon cheeseburgers anywhere, you gotta go to a small town bar for this kind of entertainment.<\/span><\/p>\n We didn\u2019t bother getting up early the next day, waiting for the temp to crest the thirty-degree mark.\u00a0 After our brief flurry of action in the lower river the night before we decided to head back to that general area.\u00a0 Proved to be a good decision, as we each caught a nice one in the bottom end of a long run.\u00a0 I caught mine on a shiny new Vibrax, and it provided an epic battle, the whole time I was thinking about the \u201cbad spot\u201d in my line the day before.\u00a0 I was surprised when I finally got it to hand that it wasn\u2019t bigger.\u00a0 We taped it at 25\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n There is a certain amount of relief that comes with catching a steelhead [or muskie or other trophy fish], after a dry spell.\u00a0 I\u2019m pretty sure that the last time I caught a good-sized steelhead here was five years ago.\u00a0\u00a0 And after another day of not catching one I was starting to think that maybe I should stick to crappie fishing.\u00a0 I always seem to be able to catch a boatful of those without trying too hard.\u00a0 Now I was all grins, and didn\u2019t give a shit if I caught another fish or even made another cast.<\/span><\/p>\n We fished down through a few more runs without incident, other than a dead porcupine on the river bank. Not sure what did it in, but there were quills scattered all over the place.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Snow was starting to fall as we climbed up the steep hill back to the truck. \u00a0I wasn\u2019t really keen on staying until dark, nor did I want our next sesh to be a death march to get in and out of.\u00a0 We decided on a parking spot higher up that\u2019s pretty much at the level of the river.\u00a0 There were four cars parked there already, but we knew where most of them would be.\u00a0 There is a popular hole 5 minutes from the parking spot that had a conclave of center pin anglers working it. This is what we expected, so we kept going up the trail.\u00a0 It was snowing steady by this point, making the trails greasy but at least we could see tracks from other anglers; they were all heading towards the parking lot.\u00a0 We settled into a nice corner hole that I have fished many times before. This spot looks great but I\u2019ve never hooked a thing here.<\/span><\/p>\n I had my nymph rod with, and I started working the top of the run with a version of a \u201cSuperior X-Legs Nymph\u201d that has been tied on to the 4x tippet since the last time I was up here.\u00a0 In 2017.\u00a0 Same fly, same tippet, same knot.\u00a0 After a half dozen casts my giant orange indicator was yanked under.\u00a0 I set the hook and a big bright steelhead flew out of the water.\u00a0 I took it easy while fighting the fish, what with the three year old tippet, but actually landed the fish in less time than the one on the spinner that morning.\u00a0 Even though I caught it on my least favorite way to fish I was plenty pleased with myself and I took a seat on the bank.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"snowy](\"http:\/\/wildsmallie.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/snowy-scene.jpg\")
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