October

10/31/08 – Happy Halloween. The boat is put away for the year and another season has come to an end. Each October is always a little bitter sweet when the cover goes on the boat. Sad that summer has come and gone so quickly, but thankful for the new friends I have made and the great fishing we have shared. Until next year ... or maybe until ice fishing season. Darren

10/1/08 – Wow!! What a way to end the lake trout season. 2007 was very anticlimactic with all the rain we had but this year was different. The big male lake trout remained stacked up and biting well with bigger females thrown in for good measure. On the 30th, the last day of trout season, we could hardly catch a fish under 6lbs, with most being 6-8lbs. King salmon continue to bite as well. So even though keeping lake trout is over we can still catch salmon. Hopefully the nice weather will continue for a few more weeks allowing us to get out a few more times.

September

9/23/08 – Well we have hit that time of September where the fishing is excellent, but the weather doesn´t always cooperate. Our last trip we had a double of lake trout 9.2 & 10.5lbs, which made for an interesting time with only 3 of us on the boat. One week left in the trout season and the forecast is for a few more nice days.

9/15/08 – Fishing is great. Our catch lately has been about 1/2 salmon and 1/2 lake trout. Lake trout continue to stack for the fall spawn and are very nice size fish. Knock on wood, September is continuing to provide us with nice weather and calm winds. Hope for more of the same weather and big fish to come.

9/7/08 – How could I forget? Last week the Mossberg family completed the "North Shore Slam". The slam is catching the 5 species of sport fish that are in this section of Lake Superior – Lake trout, king salmon, coho salmon, pink salmon & steelhead. We had a relatively easy time with the lake trout and salmon, but had to head off shore on a special mission for a steelhead. I am thinking if the brook trout or Coasters ever make a come back we could potentially catch a North Shore Grand Slam ... but that will be another day. Here is a picture of a previous slam (minus the steelhead since they are protected)

9/6/08 – What a busy month of fishing August was. As the weather starts to cool off the charters will slow down a little but the lake trout fishing is just getting to one of the best times of the year. As the trout prepare for the spawning season the big males will stack up waiting for the females. We have already started catching the early arrivals. Look for some of the best numbers of the year on lake trout in the next few weeks. Still a lot of king salmon biting to keep up the variety as well.

August

8/24/08 – The last 4 days the wind has kicked up making fishing more difficult and ending a month long stretch of nice weather. Hate to see it end but it is inevitable. Seems like the hottest days of the summer were just last week and now we have freeze advisories for tonight. Now that is a short summer. King salmon continue to hit well, as well as nice sized lakers. 60F water temps two days ago, but with yesterday´s strong offshore winds the water temp has dropped to a low of 38F. Talk about a natural air conditioner!

8/17/08 – I think this is the only time I have been into August and the lake trout are playing hard to find. The king salmon have made up for their absence and are still biting very well. As well as usually getting a couple steelhead most days. We haven´t been able to keep any of the steelhead, but you have to love the hit they put on the rod.

The peregrine falcons chose a new location for their nest by Taconite Harbor this year and fledged two chicks a couple weeks ago. They have been terrorizing the little birds ever since. It isn´t uncommon to see them land on the break wall rocks to eat their victim and the peregrine screams are cool to hear. Speaking of birds the fall migration has already started and we just got to the hottest days of summer. Flock after flock of shore birds have been going by.

8/7/08 – This past week we have had a much better salmon bite. However, it has been mostly king salmon and not cohos. A few steelhead are smashing our lures as well. Overall it has been good weather and good fishing. I look forward to more of the same.

July

7/27/08 – Water temps climbed into the 60´s last week thanks to 3 days in a row of flat calm seas. A moderate off shore blow on Friday and Saturday sent the warm water out and we are back to 38F water by shore. Now that the water temp isn´t optimum everywhere we should be able to find the fish in more predictable patterns. Lake trout continue to hit good, while the salmon are still relatively scattered.

7/20/08 – We are at the stage where the water is the optimum temperature to bring the fish to the top ... however it is the optimum temperature everywhere. Which means the fish are still unorganized and scattered. I would say we are very close to a great mid summer bite. Full moon has come and gone. Hooked a couple big fish but were unable to land them, we will keep working on it. An unusual visitor to the north shore stopped by the harbor a couple days ago ... a white pelican. I have seen pelicans less than five times on Lake Superior and only flying by. This pelican was happy to bully the gulls and take our fish remains for itself.

7/15/08 – The water is still not very warm, but we did catch the first coho of the summer today. The last two days have been gorgeous after a very windy weekend. We did not make it on the lake for two days. But not all was lost and that didn´t stop me from fishing. Out to the cabin to fish with my daughter ... who has now caught her first walleye ... what species will be next? Full moon is here, hopefully I will have a big fish picture to show you tomorrow.

7/8/08 – Another busy 4th of July has come and gone, with a lot of fun had by all. For our 4th of July party after the parade I made a fish boil. Boy was it good! One of these days I will get the recipe page done for my website. Water temps are continuing to climb and a few king salmon are starting to show up. Hopefully it won't be long before the coho salmon follow suit.

June

6/30/08 – All the rain we have had in June and the warmer days lately are bringing the water temperature up and I think we are back on track. Reports of salmon being caught further down the shore means they are headed our way. In the mean time we are catching limits of lake trout.

6/22/08 – One of the toughest days for boat control yesterday. The day was mostly sunny with scattered showers moving through. Every time a shower would pass the wind would blow harder and switch directions. The wind changed direction at least 10 times over the course of the day. Despite the difficult boating conditions the lake trout continued to bite very well.

6/16/08 – As if on cue the big fish have started to hit. A 36" 16lb laker on Saturday and a 37" 15lb laker on Sunday. Hopefully a few more big fish this week. I had a couple nights off and took advantage of Jon Boat "guide service" and caught a limit of great eating size walleyes. A real treat for me since I very rarely have time to head inland when the walleyes are biting.

6/13/08 – In June the weather has brought us over 5.5" of rain. More than 3" came in in one night, which caused flood conditions and highway 61 was getting severely eroded in a couple spots. Rivers were up and something to behold. Last week my daughter Katie caught her first salmon of her young fishing career and the first for the season. Besides the one salmon good numbers of lake trout continue to bite. The full moon is coming next week, let's see if we can put a big one on board.

May

5/30/08 – Two days ago the weather station at my house read 30F at 6:30am. Shortly after we started trolling, we were going through sheets of skim ice. Are you kidding me? It is almost June! The ice didn't bother us and we caught good numbers of trout, despite a brisk west wind that kicked up half way through the trip.

5/27/08 – I hope everyone had a good Memorial Day weekend. Lake trout are in their normal spring pattern as I say every year ... predictably unpredictable. They are there and biting, we just need to find them. We had an interesting catch on Sunday when we pulled in about a 30lb water logged stick. A good laugh was had before we practiced catch and release.

5/23/08 – After a weekend off to attend my Grandma Goldie´s 100th birthday party in SW Minnesota, I am back and ready to catch fish. Captain Kelly was on the water in my absence and had good success on lake trout. The weather has been very cooperative lately with calm seas and sunny skies. Cross you finger it continues through the holiday weekend.

5/9/08 – Minnesota walleye opener is tomorrow and the ice is just leaving many of the inland lakes. It continues to be a cold and late spring, but hopefully we have turned the corner and the warmer weather of the past few days is here to stay. Tofte Charters reached another milestone today when "captain in training" Katie (3 yrs old) caught her first lake trout. She was overjoyed with the catch as she screamed "this is so cool!" It looks like it will be very difficult to leave her on shore in the up coming years, which means I will have to get a bigger boat to make room for a first mate. A problem I welcome whole heartedly.

April

4/18/08 – Spring weather has arrived with the past two days of temps in the 50's. One week ago we received 10" of snow and winds whipping up to 60mph in gusts. The waves on Lake Superior were a sight to see and it looked like we were headed back into winter. Seven days later the snow is gone once again from the yard and the boat is has melted out of the snow bank. Not long now until we will be back on the big lake. For those of you that have been fishing with me before you probably have heard me talk about winter whitefish. They have been my nemesis for years and I finally broke their spell this winter. We have been enjoying some great whitefish boils lately. April 14th was the end to the walleye season on the border lakes. I was lucky enough to hit the ice one last time and to catch a meal of walleyes and a couple jumbo perch. Sorry to say the ice was still close to 4' thick, almost to the handle of the arm–strong auger. Lets hope the ice is off the inland lakes by the May walleye opener.