Brule River Fishing

[troutslayer7275]

I agree, most of the fish look like cohos also, nice fish either way!

[pjdeano]

Nice fish! Good to see some catching. Headed up next week to decorate some trees hopefully the fish get in the way.

[Chad Holst]

Fishing was very slow today. Few misses and lots of creek chubs when we bait fished. Thanks for the info on the coho.

Question of the day... What is this....

[troutslayer7275]

That is a smolt, baby rainbow trout.

[Odonata]

Fishing was slow on Sat for me too. Ended up with one small steelhead, 20", and a few smolts. Once the sun popped out, things shut down.

[Chad Holst]

Made it back about 11:00PM Sunday night. not much to report on as sunday fishing was very similar to Saterday. we did catch several short rainbows, but nothing to talk about.

We met a few locals that said the same thing, fishing was OK on wed-fri, then shut down on sat-sun. we spotted a few large steelies/salmon but none that would bite.

The weather really got cold at night friday/sat...saturday was 30 degrees at 7AM..burrrr.

Thanks for all the help and comments. Tight lines...and remember...take a kid outdoors!

[DrewFlu33]

Hi all,

I'm headed up on Saturday evening to fish the Brule for my first time on Sunday. I'm quite familiar with fishing Erie tribs for steel in Ohio and Pennsylvania, but I've never fished Superior tribs before. Having that experience, I'm praying for rain Friday into Saturday, as those fish always seemed to turn on with falling water that has been up.

I expect less fish and less elbow-to-elbow fishing here, a steep learning curve, and much more beautiful surroundings. Does this sound about right?

I suppose I'm going to use the same tactics I did when I lived further east, hopefully with success. Egg patterns and streamers, both dead drifting and swinging the streamers. My favorite patterns for Erie were invented by an eastern steel guru named Jeff Blood, his patterns being Blood's Blood Dot and the White Death Streamer. Maybe I'm way out of my league here. Anybody have any tips?

[Poacher's pariah]

Presentation is probably secondary to just taking the time to learn the river. With the low water levels we're experiencing, finesse is important.

[Slabasaurus]

Presentation is probably secondary to just taking the time to learn the river. With the low water levels we're experiencing, finesse is important.

I'd agree with this.

If you go back a few pages you'll see some patterns I tied up. I added another one to the arsenal, but will be using smaller nymphs/egg flies primarily.

Time on the water is the most important though... Hopefully the rain does come saturday and you'll have some nice conditions sunday.

I'll be up there saturday and sunday. If ya see a dude in a titleist hat with an auburn logo, that's me.

[DrewFlu33]

I've dealt with some low-water fishing in Erie. I can certainly understand finesse, and I've certainly been frustrated by that low clear water many times. Thanks for the tips! And that's one nice looking tube there!

Thankfully the weather report for Saturday is looking better every day. How much rain can the river handle before being unfishable? I suppose unfishable is a relative term, as I have had some of my best days during times when others would call a river unfishable. My hope is that with the dry weather as of late the rain does just enough to get some color and flow in the water.

Where do you guys usually go for tippet in low,clear water? I've been known to drop down to 6x for steel, though that ends up in lots of break offs, so usually 5x is my lower limit.

I was also wondering about crowds. In Erie tribs, they get ridiculous. It brings new meaning to the term "fishing elbow-to-elbow." What can I expect as far as crowds? I assume rain on Saturday would increase the crowds on Sunday.

I'll be wearing a blue hat with a gold "Flying WV" (West Virginia U). I should have my girlfriend in tow, hopefully hooking her into her first steel ever! She already picked up the art of fly fishing much more quickly than I did, so I'm optimistic for her.

[skippydo]

So, I'm planing my first treck up there this weekend as well (not sure about the day yet).

I'm a bit of a steelhead newb. I've caught them but the only thing I'm very good at is the ole chuck and duck.

Could you guys enlighten me on what you mean by finesse? Is it just lighter tackle than usual or are you changing the flies or types of areas you present them?

[Slabasaurus]

Was going to head up to the river to fish tomorrow... not sure about that anymore. Anyone know how the river's handling the rain? Notice the CFS is over 160 at brule now... that's a pretty big jump in 2 days. I might let the river settle a bit and head up the next 2 weekends instead.

If I don't make it up to the river this weekend, I think I'll probably try swingin some flies in a local creek for some dogfish... I think a pic of a dogfish with a silver hilton in its jaw would look pretty neat.

Vtbass - Whenever I fish in a "finesse" situation I try to downsize and slow down everything. I'll work the same water, just with a smaller presentation, using lighter leader/tippet than normal.

[Jarrid Houston]

I did not know dog fish inhabited creeks, but I am not real familiar with the species. The ones I have ever caught have been in lakes

[Odonata]

160 CFS Isnt a major jump, it's a good thing. I'm going tomorrow, we coud use more rain.

[Slabasaurus]

160 CFS Isnt a major jump, it's a good thing. I'm going tomorrow, we coud use more rain.

Heh, yeah. 160cfs isn't huge for that river, I was more curious on how cloudy/muddy the river ended up. Glad for the rain though for sure.

What was the water like? You hook up with anything?

I made the right choice, ended up hookin into some dogfish, pike, and bullheads swingin some fancy steelhead flies (Silver Hilton variants mostly). Next few weekends I'll be up there though, the gal wants to do some fall camping/hiking/steelheading.

[Odonata]

The water did jump up in flow during Saturday, the color went from decent vis to probably about 10-12", it dirtied up quite a bit. Flow as good, water color was good, slow day though. Ended up with 2; which is good! Considering the conditions, I was hoping for a banner day. Talked to other guys, some had none, one group had caught two. A friend lost one in the fast water, it jumped and shook the hook. When it landed, it sounded like he (my buddy) had fallen in the river.

[BigHitter]

I went up to the Brule Saturday morning for some steelhead fishing. There are fish in the river and they are scattered from the mouth to Highway 2. I lost a steelhead on a Rapala down by the Horseshoe when it shook the hook. I mixed it up between spin fishing and fly fishing yesterday and today. This steelhead hit a spinner and put up a big fight. Talked to some other guys who got fish on spinners. The guys fly fishing that I talked to didn't catch much. I did run into two different anglers who landed steelhead on live worms under a bobber/strike indicator.

[snowguy]

Was on the Brule last week Sun-Tues. Was switching between fly/indicator and fly/bottom-bouncing (ie chuck n duck). Steelhead were scarce (lost two Sunday otherwise none). A few resident browns and a handful of smolt were had too. Got two lake run browns that were nice. One was 21" and the other 19". Here is a pic of the 21.

[Slabasaurus]

Nice brown there... fishy lookin water too!

Last weekend was slow... heard of one fish landed all weekend between the folks i saw on the river, and those that I met at dinner.

There was a 20 minute window sunday afternoon that... well, I missed one because I wasn't paying attention (brought the gal up with me, was helping her while drifting a pats rubber legs through a run), and missed another because I'm just not very good at catching fish. Also saw 2 fish topfeed during that window. That was it though as far as observed fish activity

Lots of fungus poppin up, made for some neat photo ops.

I'll be up there again this weekend, for sure saturday, probably part of sunday as well. River was in pretty good shape last weekend, looks to be about the same this weekend if not a little bit on the clear side.

The water was a lot colder than the previous weekends though... low 40's, so if you're wading for any extended time might wanna remember to layer up on the bottom.

Hopefully I'll have pictures of fish this time... even if it is just a smolt brown like last year.

[Odonata]

Spent a good afternoon on the river recently, here's a buddy and a few pics with our fish. I will be going back tomorrow, we'll see what's left. This day was a great day, many smolts, many browns, a handful of steel and one monster brown to round out the day!

[biff]

Nice...did you get a measure on that brown? Looks like shes still full of eggs...hope you let her go

[certified jumbo]

We didn't measure her. 27 ish would be my guess. Yes, very full of eggs. Most were still full, some not. She still swims.......

[Raider4ever]

"12 of 12" is a real beauty. Congrats!!!

[snowguy]

Last of the season a nice 22" hen ... sigh... Can't wait until spring!

[certified jumbo]

Very nice fish.......I can't wait either!