---

The Kamloops strain of rainbow trout, popularly referred to around the Great Lakes region as loopers, are running up and down the North Shore and staging at river mouths, awaiting the spring spawning run. If you've never done battle with a looper, you're missing out on quite an experience. These fish are large, aggressive, and absolutely refuse to come to the net before they pull every trick in the book to elude capture.

The two most popular methods for taking spring loopers are bobber rigs and slinky rigs. A bobber rig consists of a "looper bug" tipped with wax worms or piece of night crawler, run 3'-5' below a slip-bobber. The looper bug is nothing more than a lead head jig with a chenille body and marabou tail. As the waves cause the bobber to move up and down, it in turn causes the looper bug to do the same, causing the jig's marabou tail to undulate in the water and entice strikes. Popular colors include black, brown, purple and dark orange. Another deadly method is the slinky rig. A slinky is a slip-weight consisting of a short length of parachute cord or nylon hockey lace (3-inches long) with 3-5 #4 buckshot or size F steel shot stuffed inside. The open ends of the tubing are burned shut and a barrel swivel is pushed through and attached to one end. As you'd imagine, this weight slips up and down the running line between your rod and a fixed barrel swivel, no different than a walleye rig. The leader section that runs from the fixed barrel swivel to your hook should be 18" - 24" in length -- just enough to float the bait above the rocky bottom. Popular baits used with the slinky rig are floating spawn bags, whole nightcrawlers (inflated) or a half of a nightcrawler threaded onto a hook with a small marshmallow over the hook's eye to provide flotation. Marine General Supply (London Road, Duluth) always has plenty of bugs in stock, in all sizes and colors, as well as live bait, slinky weights, hooks and other terminal tackle.

At this time of year, depending on wind direction, the North Shore can become completely socked in with shore ice: if the wind is easterly, there's a good chance that the lake ice will get pushed up against the shore and won't allow you to fish at all. That being said, I wouldn't recommend going up there one evening with plans to fish the following day. If the wind switches and begins to blow from the east overnight, well, it'll simply ruin your plans altogether. Instead, do a day trip after you've confirmed with a local bait shop that the shore is free of ice.

Popular spots to look for spring loopers include the shorelines near the Lester River, French River and Sucker River, as well as Blue Bird Landing and Stony Point. All of these locations can be found as you drive the Scenic Highway between Duluth and Two Harbors. Before you head up there, take the time to do an Internet search on the subject at sites such as steelheadsite.com or fishingmn.com. Both sites have a search function and can be great tools to gain valuable knowledge that'll help make your first looper outing a success.

Dan Brown's weekly outdoor column is brought to you by Frankie's Bait and Marine, in Chisago City, and St. Croix Outdoors, in St. Croix Falls, Wis.

---