TWO HARBORS, Minn. _ Trolling is cheating.
When it comes to catching lake trout in the most pristine of the Great Lakes, that's the code of a band of North Shore anglers who take great pleasure in jigging vertically in water deep enough to cover lesser skyscrapers.
"I cheat sometimes, but it takes more skill to jig," said Tim Sonday, an operation technician at Northshore Mining in Silver Bay.
He's been chasing Lake Superior's apex predators for more than 30 years, often from the same type of 16-foot aluminum tiller boat commonly rented at the smallest of Minnesota's inland family resorts. The only special rigging he uses is an oversized, hand-cranked anchor that drops as deep as 200 feet. He also relies heavily on an electronic screen to find fish and track GPS location.
"We caught six in a half-hour the other day," Sonday said recently. "You feel the fish and you have to react quickly. They fought us all the way up."
Loren Slette, co-owner of a building and design company in Duluth, is unfamiliar with Sonday but just as dedicated to lake trout jigging. He fishes on Superior year-round, accompanied by his pal Bruce Sederberg, the owner of a Duluth fishnet business.
"We get out there as long as the lake is open," Slette said. "January, February... sometimes that's been the best jigging we've had."
But the most reliable time to jig for lake trout on the big sea is almost here. Slette said the fish typically bite most aggressively during their pre-spawning period of late September and early October. That's when the water cools and the fish congregate around underwater humps. And for more than a few years now, surveys have indicated high catch rates.
The trout season on Lake Superior closes Oct. 6 to safeguard spawning. This year, it starts back up on Dec. 1.
"We never miss an opener!" Sederberg said.
