Coaster comeback

The first Lake Superior “coaster” brook trout I ever laid eyes on was in the refrigerator of a friend’s house in my hometown of Thunder Bay. It was in the mid-1970s and the trout had been cleaned and de-headed. Four times the size of any brook trout I had seen to that point, it was probably in the four-pound range. That coaster was caught by my friend’s father in the mouth of the Current River, on the north side of the city. Coasters were already rare at that point, and I would not see a brookie like it again for many years. My first coaster of any size was taken about a decade after I saw that fridge trout. I was fishing Nipigon Bay with a buddy, and we were in a canoe owned by my father. The canoe had been rigged with a plywood bracket that could hold a four-horse Johnson outboard. Not the ideal rig for Lake Superior, but it was all we had available at the time. We put in at a rocky bay in the late afternoon and made our way a couple of miles down the lake to a series of points. Once in casting range, my friend and I began chucking spoons at the shoreline and slowly working them back. It was early June, and the water was clear, cold, and calm. The sense of expectation was building with each cast. My partner hooked the first fish, a scrappy trout of about 15 inches. It was bright and silvery, which was a surprise. As we continued down the shore, the boul­ders became larger and many of them were sitting well out in the water. In the shadow of these rocks, the water was dark, and the visibility limited. My Torpedo spoon landed on the shallow edge of the rocks and after a couple of reel cranks, there was a hard strike. It felt more like a lake trout than brookie. When the fish passed under the canoe, my friend and I both could see this was no laker. The white­ness of the leading edge of the fins was visible, and the body shape was all brook trout. I cannot recall what was said, but that fish was netted and celebrated with some photographs I still have. The coaster was 20-inches long and push­ing four pounds. It was a thrilling experience and a memorable day.