Isle Royale Forums

I will be renting a boat from the marina on 5/22-5/23. I was wondering about doing some fishing in Rock Harbor. Here's the deal though, I know VERY VERY little about fishing. My entire experience is fishing walleye from the shore with a worm. I can however clean a walleye. I am aware that I will need a Michigan fishing license for this. So who can help me out? Im going to Bass Pro this week to look for gear. What all should I bring? What can I catch in Rock Harbor? What parts of Rock Harbor are good for fishing? Please keep in mind my terminology will be lacking, so be as simple as possible please. Thanks in Advance. All advice is appreciated.

Welcome to ISRO!

One thing to keep in mind is that Rock Harbor stretches 11 or more miles from Moskey Basin in the SW to Snug Harbor (where the lodge is) to the NE (and beyond to Scoville Point I suppose).

You should get NOAA Chart 14976 for the waters surrounding Isle Royale, including Rock Harbor. This will be less expensive than purchasing electronic gear. The chart is available in pdf format online.

Rock Harbor is deep -- over 100 feet in places. There are also several places where there are shoals. Game fish include lake trout, salmon, and pike. There are walleye, but they are in some of the interior lakes.

There are restrictions on fishing methods at Isle Royale, including no use of live bait.

You might want to have two poles. The first would be set up for deep trolling/drifting with flashers and other deep water lures for lake trout and salmon. The other would be set up for surface or shallow water jigging and surface lures for pike.