October

10/19/07 – Relatively nice temperatures but rain, rain, rain. The rivers are up and raging making for great photo opportunities. A local weather station here in Schroeder that I find very useful, says we have had 7.78" of rain in October. Wrapped up the season, just can´t seem to get the right weather or winds for another trip out. As always thank you to all that boarded Tofte Charters this year. Those of you that missed our annual trip due to weather or other commitments. You were missed and hope to get back on the big lake with you next year. Until then I will be playing with the kids and chasing some land critters. Darren

10/3/07 – Unfortunately the lake trout season came to an uneventful close, with the weather keeping us off the lake the last two days of the season. Wonderful weather today but a brisk wind on the lake kicked up white caps. Boat is still out and ready to go if we do get a nice day. We can still target salmon which is open all year long. Or if you are interested in a fall color tour, the leaves by the lake are reaching their peak. The gold leaves contrasting with the white trunks and the red under brush is my favorite and breath taking to say the least. From the lake seeing the Sawtooth Mts is the only way to go.

September

9/27/07 – Well the full moon didn´t help this week, in fact with the weather conditions it became some of the toughest fishing for the year. Close to 4" of rain fell, which turned the near shore waters brown and mixed up the fish. No definable pattern, just one fish here another there. Fall colors are peaking though and they are spectacular. Most color is still in the inland maples, but the shore line should be changing soon. Just a few more days left in the lake trout season, it closes September 30th this year.

9/18/07 – A little less than desirable wind the past few days has made catching fish a little more difficult, but action is still consistent. Picked up a few straggler cohos and steelhead lately, a couple kings each trip and lots of nice lake trout. Big fish of the week was a 13lb lake trout. Full moon is the 26th, I predict more big fish in the next 7 days.

9/13/07 – Oh what a blow we had two days ago. 30+ knot winds, which were luckily from the NW. From shore you could see the gusts picking water up off the lake and throwing it sideways in sheets. I would have bet money that the with a wind like that our water temps were going to plunge. Back on the water yesterday and still found the surface temp in the 50´s, not bad. Today we are waiting out a thunderstorm before we hit the lake. September weather doesn´t always cooperate with us, but when you can get out the fishing is usually very good.

9/9/07 – Incredible fall fishing the past few days. Yesterday I filled a page in my fishing log for the morning trip and a page for the afternoon. Talk about some fast action. Biggest fish were 9lb & 11lb lake trout. Off the lake today but will be back out tomorrow weather allowing.

9/3/07 – Happy Labor Day to everyone. No rest for the weary here, we are back on the lake after a day off because of a SW blow. Fishing has slowed a little with the fronts that have been moving through the area. Although we are still getting a good mix of salmon and lake trout, even caught a couple steelhead on Saturday. I have been marking some big fish on the graph so I predict that more are on their way.

I took a picture of the cleaning table that I mentioned a couple posts back. Picture

August

8/28/07 – I have been predicting to friends lately that a 20 pounder would be brought aboard during this week of the full moon. Now I also said it last month and it didn´t happen so they were rightly skeptical. Today after my morning charter I had some free time so went fishing by myself. First bite was a double of lakers, 5.5 & 6lbs. Third bite the drag started screaming and it was big fish on. A hard fought battle and I had my 20lb 37" lake trout at the side of the boat. Of course no one to take my picture so the fish is laying on the floor of the boat. This fish had shoulders, take a close look right behind its head.

8/26/07 – Fishing continues to be excellent with the lakers seeming to be slipping into their fall routine a little earlier than normal. But then who doesn´t like to catch a bunch of 4–7lb males as they get ready for the spawning season. Full moon this week hopefully a big fish is in our near future, keep your fingers crossed. Still getting a few salmon mixed in to keep things interesting.

For those of you that have been out with me, you have seen the portable fish cleaning table I have and I would like to ask a favor. I would like to get a new one, but I can´t find anything like it anywhere. In your travels if you see something that resembles the table I already have, please let me know. Thanks in advance.

8/23/07 – We missed a couple days of fishing due to strong NE winds which had the lake up in white caps. Back on the lake yesterday and the fish were waiting for us. Again a good mix of lake trout and salmon.

8/19/07 – Good fishing continues with an increase in nice sized (for Lake Superior) Kings the past few days. Two days ago strong off shore winds blew our warm water away again, and yesterday we were greeted with 41F water by shore. We caught our share of lakers by shore and then headed off in search of warmer water and bigger fish. Found 50F and boy what a current came with it as the SE winds were bringing it back toward shore. Found the bigger fish as well starting with a triple and only one person to reel, while I netted the fish and the other person drove. Biggest fish of the day was a 13.5lb laker.

8/14/07 – A rare morning that I am not on the lake, my son is at camp and I have a few minutes to update the website. The picture section is up to date now as well. A weird few days of fishing last week. I could not figure out a recognizable pattern the fish were following. Plenty of hits and fish in the boat but they were coming at all different depths and colors of lures. Surface water continues to be near the optimum temperature although a brisk off shore breeze is blowing today. First pink salmon of the year showed up in our catch yesterday and we are still catching a few coho & kings. Big fish of the week was a 39" lake trout that was landed in Captain Kelly's boat.

8/8/07 – For those of you that look at the fishing report a lot, I apologize for the lack of entries this year. It seems that my commitments to my family and work this year are much more time consuming than others. That said, fishing continues to be good but they are making me work pretty hard to catch them. Last week the water temps had reached the 60´s and the fish were getting into a nice pattern. Then a strong off shore wind pushed the warm water out and the temps dropped to 37F by shore. Not usually a problem, other years if you go out to the warm water the fish will be lined up. Not this time, we found our fish in the cold water. This pattern held for a few days. The last few days the water temps are fluctuating widely. This makes finding the fish difficult because they are always moving. Yesterday the temps were back up and hopefully it stayed the same today. Large schools of herring are showing up on the graph, which is on time for a good August bite.

July

7/30/07 – Still catching a nice mixed bag of fish. Good sized lake trout is the norm with many in the 10 – 12lb range. A couple days ago we actually got to keep a steelhead. We are only able to keep stocked steelhead, and you can tell they have been stocked because they clip off the adipose fin. This is the third one we have been able to keep in 10 years. We have been catching more and more steelhead in recent years, but they are naturally reproduced fish that need to be released.

7/26/07 – The warm weather continues and the surface water temps and pushed into the 60´s. Nice lake trout are being caught with the big fish of the week at almost 15lbs. The full moon is close and more big fish should be on the way.

7/21/07 – The past two days we have missed the "North Shore Slam" by one fish each day. For those that don´t know this is something I made up. You complete the slam if you catch all 5 species of fish we normally catch in one day. The species are lake trout, king salmon, coho salmon, pink salmon and steelhead. We have missed it each day by not catching a pink salmon. Great weather and great fishing continues.

7/20/07 – The warm calm weather has continued and the water has warmed into the 50´s. Steelhead have arrived in good numbers, we boated five in two days. A double of steelhead this afternoon made for some interesting action. Lakers are biting as usual but with a nice mix of cohos and kings as well. More good weather on the way, fishing is only going to get better.

7/16/07 – Today showed the first flat calm hot day of the summer. This is good for warming the surface water and bringing the fish up from the depths. Lake temps went from 39F up to 42F during the morning charter. Salmon are showing up more often and herring schools are being marked on the graph. Excellent summer fishing is just a few degrees away.

7/12/07 – Despite the strong westerly winds which make us troll at an angle and blew the warm water back across the lake, the fish have responded quite positively. Yesterday we landed a matching pair of 37" 17lb lake trout. More big ones should be reaching the net soon.

7/7/07 – Luckiest day of the year and a good one for fishing. The water is warming up but not much, it is now up to 38F. Despite the cold water we have started adding a few salmon to the daily catch. Looking at the Sea Grant water temperature map the warm water is now a little more than 1/2 way across from the Apostle Islands. The last 3 days of warm weather has encouraged the warming. The 4th of July parade and party was a lot of fun as usual. Waiting for me after the parade was Master Chief Tom Wilson of the US Coast Guard. There he presented me with the Meritorious Public Service Award and medal. My thanks to Tom for coming to Tofte which allowed my family and friends to be there during the presentation. As my daughter and son hugged me afterwards it became ever so clear why the rule of the sea is so easy to follow. Seamen do not hesitate when someone is in trouble because we all have family that need us home at the end of the day.

June

6/27/07 – The fog has finally parted and after two days we can now see the lake again. Hopefully this is the end of the June gloom. The lake trout are still biting quite handily and with the full moon just around the corner I am predicting a big fish soon. Don´t forget the 4th of July is also next week and the Tofte parade and festivities are something to see. Come for some great small town flavor. Fireworks over the lake at dusk as usual. Bluefin or Tofte Park are great spots to watch.

6/22/07 – The past two days have been gorgeous and the fish have responded. Easily catching our limits of lake trout and then we go searching for the "big" one ... still searching. Water has warmed another degree so it is hovering at 37–38F. More fish are suspending almost enough to start targeting them.

6/16/07 – The heat has arrived and it looks like a good stretch of weather is on its way. Consistent weather means good fishing. I had the day off today so I was working around the yard and got eaten by black flies. It reminded me of one of the great things about fishing on Lake Superior ... no black flies or mosquitoes. Water hasn´t warmed much yet, it is still at 35 – 36F, but the fish have started to suspend. Looking back at last years log by this day in June the surface temp was already 50F, what an unusual year that was.

6/7/07 – Spent the day on shore today finishing up minor repairs and cleaning the boat. Strong storms were predicted and one did race through this evening. Fishing has been hit and miss lately but progressively getting better. The frequent weather changes are not allowing the fish to get into a decent pattern.

Congratulations to Jack Peck (Captain in training) on graduating from Kindergarten

May

5/30/07 – Today I heard back on two tagged fish. First was a 24" lake trout we caught September 2006.

Thanks to Matt from the Red Cliff Natural Resources Department:
The lake trout you caught was captured in the Devil's Island Refuge during the Red Cliff Fisheries Department's annual pre-recruit lake trout assessment. We initially handled the fish on August 14, 2004. At that time the fish was 20.6" and weighed 2.8 lbs. We took a scale sample to determine the year class of the fish. Our technician found that the fish was of the 1998 year class, meaning it was 6 years old when we captured it and was 8 when you caught it.

The second fish was the one we caught on Memorial Day. Thank you to Scott from the WI DNR:
We have handled that fish three times but haven't seen it for 12 years. It was captured during our annual fall (October) spawning assmt off Michigan and Gull Islands. It is a native male lake trout. In 1990 - it was 26.8 inches; 1991 - 27.5 inches; and finally in 1995 - it had grown to 29.0 inches. It was approximately 28 years old when you caught it.

5/29/07 – After a week of canceling fishing trips because of the weather, Memorial day arrived calm and beautiful. The fish predictably unpredictable like usual in the spring. It took a little looking but finally found their depth and put a few in the box. Biggest fish for the day was 12.1lbs 33", interesting thing about this fish is that it had two tags by its dorsal fin. We quickly took pictures, measured & weighed the fish, wrote down the tag numbers and released it. Most likely a fish tagged on the Wisconsin side of the lake. I will let you know the specifics when I get them.

5/21/07 – We had two nice days of weather, which we took advantage of and the first fish of the year was a salmon followed by a nice lake trout. Since then the weather has turned and it has been cold with a lot of wind. Keep your fingers crossed for a nice Memorial Day weekend.

5/15/07 – Last week I was hired as the runner boat for a movie called Holiday Beach. They were filming at Temperance State Park for most of the week and on Friday finished up with the water scenes. I had a good time learning a little about the movie industry. The weather has turned warm and the fish are ready to be caught. Lets go fishing!

April

4/27/07 – Maiden voyage for the year. Warm weather is all we need now.

4/17/07 – Looks like our weather has started to turn toward spring. Hopefully the boat will be out soon!