Staying at Jay Cooke this weekend, and will have my boat with. Any good stretches of the st louis worth launching on near the park, or should I go down closer to duluth. Not looking for anybody's hotspots, but just general areas worth trying. We'd be looking for walleyes first, then maybe muskies. Also - can you eat 'eyes out of this part of the river?

I do pretty good in the bay with worm harnesses and bottom bouncers.

I would put in at Boyscout Landing in Gary and fish the deep stretches from there down to buoy 61. Stay in 12-17' of wtaer with bouncers and crawler harnesses/spinners.
The bay has been dead for me the past few times out.

I caught an eel once off of the dock out there at the old bait shop back in the early 80's. It was a very odd catch. I still have the picture of me holding this long snake like thing.

another thing, does anyone remember Mega's that was out there. I miss that era.

Ive caught two eels off the boyscout...very strange but cool...as far as fishing the river now...things have really been slowing down lately. But of course there are always fish around. I rarely fish it in the fall...wonder if it picks back up?

Minnesota Fats second question on this topic was are the fish good/healthy to eat out of this river. I have been told by some veteran fisherman at other rivers around Duluth that say The st. louis river fish are not healthy to eat and have a lot of chemicals in them because its a port and has gotten people very sick because of eating these fish frequently. In the past i have on occasion eatin walleyes from around the boy scout area and tasted fine. Is this all just a myth? how many of you FM er's eat fish out of here. Have been curious about this for years now.

I have eaten more fish out of the river than anyone I know and Im fairly normal.
Its way cleaner now than when I was a kid. I wouldnt hesitate to eat 15-19" eyes out of the river. I wouldnt eat the bigger fish that have been in the river a long time. Majority of the river eyes go in and out of the river so they arent nearly as bad as some like to make them out to be.

I went to the river on Sun and pulled in a 29 1/2 inch walleye. Biggest walleye of my life. Caught it on a crawler harness. It was a great time.

PikeP, As Northlander said, you can catch many walleye on the river and I was brought up on the fish, take away the loss of hair, I have lived a normal life, I think. You can tell what fish have been in the river system for some time. If the fish has a green tint to the back with no yellow tint on the edge of the belly and it's 16-18 inches take it, it just came in from the lake. If it's a brown back with a minor yellow tint to the edge of the belly and still 16-18 inches you can still keep it and it will taste fine, but the first are prefered in my house, that fish has been in the river about a month. The bottom line is the fish in the St. Louis is as good as any other walleye you will catch in any other river system with stained water. They are all good fish, let all 19" and up go they are breeding stalk.

Thanks for the tips, we went in at Boy Scout and fished Oliver bridge and just upstream to the bend, did pretty well on 'eyes with crawlers on lindy's and half crawlers on yellow jigs. Biggest was about 22

We released all of them too btw

I stayed at Jay Cooke a couple of years ago and there were several signs out by the river that basically said not to eat any fish due to high PCB concentrations. Sad to see signs like that on such a beautiful river.

ya good information TMaask9. so im assuming fish up to that big hydroelectric dam down from boyscout are probably good to eat with white bellys and green tint 16 to 18 in.

I have no problems eating the 15-19" eyes out of the river unless they have 3 eyes. Seriously though you will know if you get a fish you shouldnt eat. Most likely it will be what they call a yellow belly but to be honest I havent seen one in a few years.
I do however spend more and more time on Lake Superior chasing the big ones and you can eat any fish you catch out there in the legal limits of course.

Now I just gotta get Steve to take me out there some day.

I think If a person follows the guidelines outlined in the DNR issued fishing reg's booklet they will be f f ff ffffine.