help me out here..

[srfishin15]

so this weekend i did some brook trout fishing in the lester river north of duluth. as i was walking along the bank (which at the time was a good 15 feet above the water) i looked down into this deep pool and there were 4 probably 5-6 pound rainbow trout looking fish. i tried for an hour and a half to get them to bite. using flies worms spawn everything!! i drifted the bait inches in front of each of their faces. no bites.. what were these fish? were they steelhead? kamloops? rainbows? help me out here.

i also went back the following day to try again but the pool was muddied from the runoff and couldn't see the fish anymore..

sadly i left duluth with only a few missed brookie bites with 2.5 hours of fishing frown

[the man]

I have fished the lester river and have never found any fish I never thought there would be any fish in it besides maybe a few select steel head

[srfishin15]

well these were very colorful looking fish so if that matches a steelheads description then thats probably what they were.

[the man]

Did you catch anything on the lester river. If they were steelhead this is pretty late I would think.

[Scudly]

Some of the jacks stick around once in a while. Did you try rotonenone?

[waterbound]

Come on, we don't need that kind of sarcasm. If somebody wants to fish for a fish in it's legal season it's their right.

[Scudly]

Yeah just kidding. I'd come back at low light with bait.

[srfishin15]

I have talked to enough people and Im pretty sure they were kamloops...

[gooty]

most likely steelhead, loopers aren't very smart, and cant reproduce, so they "generally" dont stay in the rivers as long as steelhead. Where you were walking along the stream sounds like you were in the park, which is above a couple good falls, usually loopers dont get up there, only steelhead. Steelies, who can reproduce and sustain a wild population of fish have that drive to spawn and reproduce and will stay longer, many times until the water is too low and they cant get out, or even until they are so beat up they die...if they get stuck they die too, water isn't good enough. You were up there late in the run, which means those fish have seen every bait under the sun, and probably snagged by some jack$$$ many times...that is why they wouldn't bite.

[gooty]

and colors dont matter, hold a looper and a steelhead up side by side and even the most experienced north shore fishermen couldnt tell the difference all the time...thats why the DNR clips the adipose fin on the loopers, so people can tell the difference

[so haaad]

Where you were walking along the stream sounds like you were in the park, which is above a couple good falls, usually loopers dont get up there, only steelhead.

Or the lower stretch, either just above the 61 bridge on the east side or up at the Jaap Hole. There's always a few late trailers that hang around from the mouth up to the Jaap Hole.

[srfishin15]

yeah we did see a fish about the same size that was dead float out of the pool right when we got there. And yes i was probably 50yds up from the actual park. Ah! that throws another wrench in my thought process, i was sure they were loopers but those points are changing my mind... thank you though.

[umichjesse]

remember that if you are fishing for brookies below the barrier falls that you have to release any fish under 20".

i am not saying you wouldn't but it makes me sick whenever i see people killing endangered coaster brook trout because they either don't know that they can't keep them or they just have poor catch and release skills. every year i see people kill beautiful coasters fishing with worms or hardware. the fish are stupid and fragile and need all the help we can give them.

[anadroman]

Either steelhead or kamloops most likely. You'd have to catch them and observe for the adipose fin clip to tell the difference. I fished the streams just north of there last weekend and caught several steelhead, but no kamloops. BTW you don't have to see the fish to catch them. It just takes a lot of patience sometimes (and live bait).