Well I decided to give it a try this fall. We were on a bit of a time crunch so we scoped out and fished from the Lester in Duluth to the Baptism River. Water is really low. We heard from DNR that they were getting a few Pinks in the Temperance, Baptism, and Split Rock Rivers. The Temperance was packed so we tried the Baptism were we spotted a pod of Pinks milling around. HOW DO YOU GUYS CATCH THEM? We tried flys, spawn sacs, yarn flies (which everyone seems to use), and even night crawlers and the fish didn't seem to bat an eye. They were also very small; alot smaller than any other pictures of Pinks I've seen.

This is the only fish we beached, and it was accidentally foul hooked by my buddy. This fish had rotten spots by its anal fin and on its tail fin, indicating to me that it spawned and was dieing. I was under the impression that these fish only did that when they come in from the ocean to freshwater; like in Alaska and the pacific northwest? We didn't hook, see, or catch any other fish in any other rivers, and we gave it our all. There's definatively a lot more fish (loopers) in the spring than there is in the fall. All the water seemed void of life; not even any minnows or nothing. It was pretty up there; other than that it was pretty much useless, for us anyway! Do they stop feeding once they've entered the rivers and or spawned? That's at least what it seemed like.

Pinks are very finicky. Small flies, 14-24, with flash and light tippets with the only weight being on the fly presented very well does the trick for me.

I find that when the fish are on redds they will not take however I find that the fish sitting behind or downstream of the ones on the redds will take a properly presented fly. And yes, I was surprised at how small they were this year.

I have also taken a few pinks on size 20-32 dries. Beats me...

Sorry to hear you didn't get any good hook ups. Always tough. As for the pinks, either you got to find them fresh in the river and still hope they have their natural instincts to feed...that's when a fly or yarn will work. Or you got to aggravate them...that's where an inline spinner or spoon has produced for me. I've read that these fish actually stop feeding even before they enter the river.

I can't tell you how many fish I've run yarn/flies/lures past and they just don't move. And every once and a while (like 1 in 30 fish!) one will surprise you and grab the hook. Just takes a little patience and time. And seeing a lot of fish.

Here's a humpie I got a couple weekends ago...about the biggest I've caught:

Superior is just a tough lake in general. Very cold and unfertal waters out there, and nothing like Lake Michigans spawning runs.....ever. The pinks have always been tough for us too. One year, my buddy fair caught like 3 or 4 to my none. Thats just the way it goes sometimes. The two I've caught there came on spoons shore casted in early September. When their in the rivers, its
almost like there robots chasing eachother around down there, not concerned about anything else....

I agree with Avidfly. Those Pinks are such a timing thing. It is better to be early that late with those things. Last year, Outdoors4Life and I caught 9 of them with yarn flies but they were fresh out of the lake. Another thing to note is that Pinks seem to be very line shy. Aaron caught more than me until I discovered he was using a light florocarbon line as a leader.

Well thanks for the replies guys. All had great info. that I will try next year. As I watched this pod of about 10 they were doing just what Doc said. Like robots they chaced eachother around, never really sitting still at all. It was hard to get our flies in front of them even for a second before they would move around almost like they were trying to avoid it.

What about Chinook, Coho, and the elusive Atlantic? When, where, and how can you get them? I assumed they ran with the Pinks, but we never saw them. I guy I met last spring told me the Chinooks run at least in the Knife river around Halloween. We of course scoured the Knife as well and saw no fish, as it also was extremely shallow. What do you know about the other Salmonids up there?

Browns and Brookies also supposedly run up there. When do they run?

I have found pinks extremely tough to catch on the North shore. Very frustrating. Once I finally got one up there, I decided there were better ways to spend my time and I'd rather hunt grouse up there. Too many anglers on too little water for me. In the Fall now, I tend to take hwy 2 East across the Bong bridge to fish one of the South shore rivers.

While almost all of the other salmonids you mentioned do run up North shore rivers in the Fall(maybe not browns), they are few and far between. Atlantics and brookies only show up in a few streams. Both are extremely rare. I don't think cohos really run up the rivers, but a few might. They catch them off river mouths during the Winter months. Cohos and browns are very common on the South shore tribs(WI). Chinooks are grungy, half-rotten and not willing to bite in MN, and there aren't many of them in the rivers.

It's really tough to catch any kind of salmon in Minnesota from shore casting into the lake or fishing in a trib. I am by no means an expert, though, and I have been spoiled by Alaskan salmon. ~andy