Brule River veterans share wealth of experience
BRULE – The Brule River flowed past dark and clear, fitting of a wild northern stream fed by groundwater and spiced by bogs.
At the moment it had the look of neat Scotch whiskey.
That was especially appropriate this day because my fishing partners were Ken Lundberg of Lake Nebagamon and Dave Zeug of Shell Lake.
Both men grew up within casting distance of the Brule and have a combined 130 years fishing it.
Time, it seems, has only made them better.
“Can’t get enough, can we Dave?” said a grinning Lundberg, 81, as he stood knee-deep in the river and flipped out another cast. “Once you get some things figured out, it’s no time to stop.”
Zeug, 71, smiled back but didn’t need to say a word.
The Brule is so deeply engrained in his life it includes marriage. The roots of his wife, Wanda (nee McNeal), trace to a farmstead along the river just south of Lake Superior. Gordon MacQuarrie, the late, great writer and outdoors editor at The Milwaukee Journal, made McNeal’s Landing famous in his stories.
Lundberg and Zeug both fished the Brule as youngsters with their fathers. I wouldn’t be surprised if Brule water flowed through both men’s veins.
“If it’s not the best place in the world, someone will have to prove it to me,” Zeug said. “I’m fortunate to be able to spend time here.”
In turn, they’ve taught their children, and in Lundberg’s case, grandchildren, to fish the Brule.
Over the years I’ve been privileged to fish the Brule often with Zeug, mostly on the opening weekend of the steelhead season in late March.
But the steelhead stay in the river into May most years. This year we made our annual outing on April 30, the day before the general Wisconsin fishing opener. Lundberg’s presence was icing on the cake.
We set out at dawn and hiked up the river valley to a series of runs and pools. A tom turkey gobbled in the distance and ruffed grouse drummed in the forest.
The air temperature at 6 a.m. was 39 degrees; a veil of vapor came off the river in places.
The next bend in the trail could have brought a sighting of a gray wolf or a pine marten.
“Some kind of country, isn’t it?” Zeug said.
Other Wisconsin rivers provide steelhead fishing. None of them provide the scenic beauty and wild experience of the one formally called the Bois Brule River.
The Brule runs for 44 miles and every bit of it is in the Brule River State Forest. The forest has numerous parking lots and trails to access the river.
From its source, the river plunges 420 feet to Lake Superior, resulting in numerous rapids and ledges. The river also has a lamprey barrier to assist with control of the invasive species.
The river has long occupied a place of distinction among American rivers.
It was used by early Native Americans and later by European explorers, traders, trappers and missionaries as a travel route from the Lake Superior drainage to the Mississippi River. A relatively short portage is required to go from the headwaters of the Brule to the St. Croix River and eventually the Mississippi.
The river also served as a vehicle to float logs to Lake Superior. And for more than a century, the Brule has been recognized as a national recreational resource.
Five U.S. presidents – Ulysses Grant, Grover Cleveland, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover and Dwight Eisenhower – fished its waters. Coolidge spent the summer of 1928 at Cedar Island on the river and established a summer White House in Superior.
Lundberg grew up in Poplar and knew it as his home water. Zeug, a native of Superior, felt the same. The river didn’t yield its secrets easily, however.
“I tell you, I fished it for years before I caught my first steelhead,” Lundberg said. “Catching one made me want to catch the second one even more.”
By 6:30 we set up along a 90-degree bend in the river and spread out over a 75-yard stretch.
We fished flies under bobbers on spinning tackle or swung with fly rods. The key with both tackle options was to get the lure to tick along bottom or just above it at the same speed as the current.
Within 10 minutes Lundberg had a hit at the tail of a pool and was fast to a leaping, thrashing steelhead.
The fish was sleek and bright and about 25 inches long. It was quickly released.
Zeug caught one minutes later of about the same size.
Fifteen minutes later Lundberg and I had a double.
Any doubts I had about steelhead fishing on the last day of April were erased. The fish were in the river and willing to hit.
The steelhead were holding in from 3 to 8 feet of water and responding to feeding opportunities that came drifting past.
A well-presented stonefly nymph or egg-sucking leech pattern was too much for them to resist.
Lundberg ties his own nymph flies out of marabou, chenille, hackle and a dash of flashabou.
As the sun rose and began to hit the water, the action seemed to pick up. Fish continued to come to net; all were released, even a 27-inch male caught by Zeug and a 26-inch hen caught by Lundberg.
Under Brule regulations, anglers must release any steelhead less than 26 inches long and may keep only one over 26 inches. Biologists say that allows adult steelhead to spawn at least once.
In fact, the fishery relies completely on natural reproduction.
“It doesn’t need stocking,” Lundberg said. “And money is better spent on habitat work.”
“The river is in pretty good shape,” said Paul Piszczek, DNR fisheries biologist for Lake Superior tributaries. “The steelhead are reproducing well and we’re seeing stable returns.”
Steelhead aren’t the only fish that migrate up the Brule from the big lake. Piszczek said anglers have the chance to catch seven different migratory species: steelhead, brown trout, coho salmon, chinook salmon, pink salmon, splake and coaster brook trout.
Anglers who are trying for a specific species typically aren’t dissatisfied if they catch one of the others, Piszczek said.
“I met one angler who had just caught a 37-inch chinook,” Piszczek said. “He said ‘I’m done, that just made my year.’”
Piszczek said the foundation to it all is the deep water aquifer that feeds the Brule with consistently cold, clear groundwater.
The Brule has a video camera on fish passage at the lamprey barrier which allows the DNR to count fish runs.
Last fall 6,144 steelhead entered the river, third highest in the last decade and above the 30-year average of about 5,500.
More steelhead came in over the winter and into spring 2021 but the data are not yet available.
In 2019-20, the fall count was 6,497 and spring added 1,194 for a total wild steelhead run of 7,691, according to the DNR.
Most steelhead (84%) ranged from 20 to 25 inches long, and 7% were 12 to 17 inches long.
Piszczek said steelhead will remain in the Brule into May most years and then start to drift back into Lake Superior as the water temperature warms past their comfort level.
September and October bring the start of the next fall runs of trout and salmon.
As they have for decades, Lundberg and Zeug will be there, too.
“It’s a lifelong process,” Lundberg said. “I know I’ve got more to learn, and the best way to do that is right here on our friend the Brule.”
Over three hours of fishing on our late April outing, Zeug landed three steelhead and I landed two. Lundberg, who stayed out another two hours, caughtand-released 11.
The Brule is sometimes called the “river of presidents.” But as I’ve learned time and again, even ordinary anglers are enriched by time spent on the wild, fabled river.