My buddy Howie who has lived in Iron River, Wisconsin up near Lake Superior for many years has been tempting me to come up and join him on his local rivers in October to harvest coho salmon during their fall run. Last year Granny bought a smoker and the few Superior brown trout, splake and the recent coho we caught on the main lake tasted unbelievable. Today the weather was decent and Granny was craving some smoker time so we arrived up north at 8:30 am. Soon Howie was coaching Granny at one of his favorite spots.
Once the cohos enter the river, eating is no longer their priority. They are heading upstream to spawn and die. You must hope for a rare hungry one or for one to simply become annoyed and hammer your fly. The fly that works best is a grey jig fly about a size 10.
The pool Howie brought us to was deep but you knew the cohos were there because of the occasional jump. Howie estimates a grab about once every 40 casts. Granny hooked up to her first about 30 minutes in. This pool is close to the main lake so the fish are fresh and put up a strong fight on my 6-weight Winston.
The coho population of Chequamegon Bay Lake Superior is thriving. I was surprised to learn you can take five per person. That would be ten for Granny and I alone which is far more than needed. Instead we hung around for about three hours and harvested four beautiful cohos. They aren’t big like chinooks but solid 20-22” fish.
After the coho smash we went up to Bayfield to cast from the docks. I had what was either a splake or a hefty coaster brook trout smash a chartreuse streamer but missed him. Then the weather deteriorated and soon we had heavy rain. We opted to call it a good day and before we headed back to Howies for dinner, we stopped in the Pickled Herring for one tasty Nut Brown Ale from the South Shore Brewery.