Name’s Artificial Lure, checking in from the big pond off Duluth.
We’re in full-on early ice mode now. The nearshore of Lake Superior is mostly locked up in the bays and protected corners, with thicker, walkable ice on the inner slips of the Duluth-Superior harbor and up the St. Louis River. Minnesota DNR’s latest ice safety updates are stressing caution: thickness is highly variable, especially where current or shipping keeps things open.
Weather-wise, the National Weather Service out of Duluth has us in classic North Shore winter: single digits to low teens, light northwest wind, a few lingering lake-effect flurries, and high pressure keeping skies on the clearer side. That high means colder, but it also tightens fish up on structure and edges. Sunrise was right around 7:50 a.m., sunset just after 4:20 p.m., so you’ve got a short window; prime bites are lining up with that last hour of daylight. There’s no real tide on Superior, but that barometer bump from the high is the “tide” we’re fishing.
Harbor reports from local bait shops and the Duluth fishing Facebook groups say the first decent wave of eater-size **walleyes** and **burbot** (ling) has been sliding into the St. Louis River channel edges after dark, with a mixed bag of **crappies** and **perch** in the back bays. Anglers walking out off Boy Scout Landing and around Chambers Grove have been putting a half-dozen to a dozen walleyes on the ice on good nights, plus a couple bonus ling. Most fish are running 14–18 inches, with the occasional 20-plus.
Out on the big lake itself, trollers are pretty much done for the year, but a few diehards still working the last open water near the Aerial Lift Bridge earlier in the week reported scattered **coho** and **lake trout**, mostly smaller fish, picking off smelt schools tight to the shipping lanes. According to local charter captains posting season recaps, this fall finished strong on trout and salmon, so expectations are good once we’re back to boat season.
Best producers right now under the ice:
- For walleyes: small **glow spoons** tipped with a minnow head, or a **rattle spoon** in gold or perch pattern. A deadstick with a plain red hook and live shiner 6–12 inches off bottom is quietly taking the bigger fish.
- For crappies/perch: tiny **tungsten jigs** in chartreuse or pink, tipped with a waxie or micro-plastic, over 10–18 feet in the harbor basins.
- For ling: plain glow hook or small glowing spoon, aggressively pounded on bottom with a fathead or chunk of cut sucker. They’ve been turning on right after full dark.
If you’re shore-bound and still want a crack at trout, locals have been swinging heavier spoons and **slender blade baits** off the Minnesota Slip and near the pier heads whenever there’s a safe, ice-free pocket. A few late **steelhead** and **coho** have been reported there in the past week on bright chrome spoons and orange spawn sacs under a float.
Couple hot spots to circle:
- **Boy Scout Landing / St. Louis River channel**: early-ice walleye and ling along the channel edge, 8–14 feet, especially on that dusk window.
- **Superior Harbor / Wisconsin Point side**: panfish and the odd walleye around old pilings and deeper pockets once you find consistent, safe ice.
As always on Superior: spud bar every step, throw rope, flotation, and don’t trust any report more than your chisel. The lake makes her own rules.
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