BAYFIELD, Wis. _ The parking lot at this boat launch near Bayfield on Lake Superior was half-filled with pickups and boat trailers on the morning of April 1. Lots of trollers were out on the 38-degree morning to comb the big lake for coho salmon, brown trout, splake and any other gamefish they might encounter.
Washburn's Luke Kavajecz launched his boat early the same morning, but he wasn't going trolling. Kavajecz, a Chequamegon Bay fishing guide, would be going after the popular Seeforellen brown trout, and he's discovered an alternate way to catch them.
He works the big lake's shoreline, casting spoons or minnow imitations or flies for these relatively new Lake Superior stocked trout.
"The reason I like them _ it extends my shallow-water season," Kavajecz said. "People can use a spinning rod and a $5 Krocodile (spoon). You can fish without fancy tackle for eight months of the year."
Kavajecz, 33, guides mainly for Chequamegon Bay's trophy smallmouth bass. He's booked for 61 straight days so far this spring and summer.
A couple of years ago, he began experimenting with this new way to fish Seeforellen browns, a strain that the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources began stocking in earnest six years ago. Some of the fish have grown to 30 inches or more. While trollers love them, Kavajecz thinks that casting for these handsome specimens has great potential. "You can open up this whole area to light tackle," he said.
Because the browns provide a near-shore fishery, anglers don't have to have bigger boats needed for more distant trolling in the Apostle Islands.
Kavajecz, who guides for Anglers All bait shop in Ashland, starts fishing for these browns near shore this time of year and fishes them well into November, he said.
