lester and sucker upper reaches fishing

[rkhinrichs]

I was wonder if the trout fishing on the lester, and sucker river are worth fishing for, not by the mouth of the streams, but fishing the upper reaches of these two rivers for brookies and browns. seeing if these rivers are worth skipping school for and catching some trout!!

[reinhard1]

i used to always fish the lester up stream all the way to the source as far as i could go. but that was many years ago. i promised myself that this summer i would spend a week fishing the streams and inland trout lakes this year. the lakes in the finland isabella area and some in the gunflint. also some of the streams on the northshore [upstream].

i have never fished the sucker upstream. the lester for miles, starting from the source has good streches for great trout habitat. even some of the creeks in the duluth city limits should have some trout fishing available. i wonder if they still stock trout in twin ponds and hartly pond. i practicly lived on twin ponds as a kid. we used to catch brookies with our hands in the creek that flows through enger golf course and then enters twin ponds. your post brings back many memories. good luck.

[so haaad]

Without being too specific, I've fished the upper reaches of quite a few streams around Duluth and up the shore and have had some great times. The upper reaches of most streams are dominated by brookies and some have a few browns as well. Most streams hold small fish, but there's a few surprise fish. Some parts of the upper reaches, including on the Sucker, can get deep and very greasy. So be careful if you are wade fishing. A good trout book to check out is In Pursuit of the Rise by Rudy Senarghi. It contains a lot of stories from the author's time exploring the upper reaches of the local north shore streams (without being too site specific).

[rkhinrichs]

o thanks for the advice i think the upper reaches of the streams get over looked with the all the steelhead fishing in the area! and want to try something differnt!

[JBMasterAngler]

Reinhard, hartley pond is mostly bullheads and sunnies. Although tischers creek is stocked with both brown and brook trout, and apparently they find their way into the pond every once in awhile. My brother-in-law lives a couple blocks from the nature center, I've always thought about hitting the creek up in the early AM.

[reinhard1]

times have changed i guess. i fished twin ponds more because i lived only a few blocks away from there. we used to go to enger golf course on rainy nights for nightcrawlers. i remember going up on the poplar river on the north shore far upstream and there were lots of brookies. upper branches of the knife and the split rock river. but the lester i fished the most. i have fished that river from the source all the way down to the mouth over the years. lots of great memories. good luck.

[rkhinrichs]

can you start fishing these rivers now, practicing catch and release or do you have to wait till the trout fishing opener on april 16 to fish for them??

[reinhard1]

you have to wait till the opener on april 16th. once the season opens keep in mind that rainbows are catch and realease only on lake superior tributaries even above the natural boundaries. good luck.

[rkhinrichs]

thanks you to! yea thats what i thought no worries!! ill keep that in mind, and read the regs. i dont keep a lot of fish anyways.

[rkhinrichs]

yesterday i went out for a walk with the girlfriend and took a walk in Lester park found some pretty nice areas that would be fly fishing friendly! the river is still pretty iced over thou!

[Doctor J]

In college at UMD, I had a blast fishing these places in the mid-1990's, when the looper fishing was poor on the shore. I caught a 13 inch brookie on the upstream Stewart river, which was my biggest ever. I used a 4 ft ultralight pole and a worm, or cast a mepps in the pools. Great memories of that kind of fishing, good for a poor college kid with no boat. I need to get back there and do it again someday.

[reinhard1]

my whole childhood was devoted to that and fishing for walleys and pike off shore on boulder and island lake. the simple things in life are sometimes the most enjoyable. we would get our own crawlers from our yard at home on 4th street in duluth and if we needed a lot we would go to enger golf course at night during or after a rain.

twin ponds, chester creek, hartly pond, rocky run, midway creek, upper lester and more. poplar river up the shore the brookies would hit the ciggaret butts we would toss in the river after that smoke was done. i have probably fished every foot of the lester from the source to the mouth over those years. the upper branches of the knife river. man what a blast. like you said the mepps and a killer spoon called the russian hook. cant find those anymore. well anyway, going to bring myself back to the past and do some of those fantastic trips again. stock up on OFF or something better i guess. good luck,

[rkhinrichs]

a man could spend his whole life fishing a couple rivers and never unlock all of its secrets!