Winter anglers look for 'loopers
Don Zirbes would fish seven days a week if he could.
By SAM COOK
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
FRENCH RIVER, Minn. -- It's a quiet January morning at the French River. Only eight Kamloops rainbow anglers dot the Lake Superior shoreline from the river east toward Sucker Bay.
One of them is Don Zirbes, better known among his fellow anglers as "Loopy."
Zirbes, 51, sits Buddha-like on a driftwood plank he has propped between two shoreline rocks. Dressed in layers, he basks in the sunlight, a rare commodity this winter. The temperature is a comfortable 27 degrees. A light northwest wind ruffles the endless blue of the lake.
Before Zirbes are his two fishing rods, angled toward the lake, resting in their PVC and re-bar rod holders. The standard rigs.
A gleaming strand of 6-pound-test monofilament line leads from each rod to the bottom of the lake, where a sinker holds it in the rocks. On a leader rising a couple of feet from the bottom, each line has a live bait offering. One line is baited with a waxworm and a floating jig. The other is baited with a night crawler.
Now that it's January, and pheasant hunting season is over, Zirbes can get down to the water often. About five days a week, he says, although he would prefer seven. He works construction. He's off for a while now.
Quick trip
Zirbes lives near the Sucker River in Duluth Township. Fishing for 'loopers at the French is a quick trip for him. Having done it a lot over many years, he has earned a reputation as a good fisherman.
"Don's the best fisherman down here," says Steve Anderson of Hibbing, fishing nearer the river. "He and Ross Pearson."
Pearson lives in Duluth. He happens to be fishing at the French today, too, just west of the river. Like Zirbes, Pearson doesn't miss many days of 'looper fishing when the fish are around.
And that's the beauty of these stocked Kamloops rainbows -- they're around a lot. They gather offshore in the fall, hang around through the winter, and make their spawning runs up the French and other streams in April or May.
In a mild winter like this one, anglers can get out frequently. Traffic builds when temperatures reach the 20s and 30s.
Not that Zirbes cares about the weather.
"I have some of my best fishing when it's really, really cold," he says.
Cold means fewer anglers competing for the same number of fish on a given day, he says.
"Typically, during a good cold snap in the middle of January, the fish will come in," Zirbes says. "Especially when we get a big northeasterly."
The northeast wind sends rollers into this stretch of shoreline, shaking free bugs and other edibles from among the boulders beneath the water. The rainbows move in to feed on them.
Not many bites
Zirbes hasn't been catching many Kamloops rainbows yet. He's been fishing farther up the shore, catching steelhead, another strain of Lake Superior rainbow trout.
"There are a lot of steelhead out there," Zirbes says. "I've had days I had to throw back four and go home without a fish."
The limit on steelhead is zero. The DNR is trying to rehabilitate the strain, which was first stocked in Lake Superior in 1895 and peaked in population during the 1960s. The no-kill rule is designed to help steelhead recover.
Zirbes isn't trying to feed his family on fish, but he likes to take one or two home once in a while. The limit on Kamloops rainbows is five, although only three of them may be longer than 16 inches. When anglers catch a 'looper, as the strain is called, it's usually longer than 16 inches.
Suddenly, Zirbes springs off his plank.
"Oh, there's one, right there," Zirbes says.
One of his rod tips is flicking repeatedly toward the lake. He plucks the rod from the rod holder, sets the hook and begins playing the fish.
The rod bends sharply, but then, it's a 12-foot rod with a light tip. Zirbes plays the fish for two or three minutes before guiding it into a slot between the shoreline rocks, a little 'looper harbor of sorts.
He lands the fish with his hand, lifting it into the sunlight. It's a flashy male, hook-jawed, dusky on the sides with the bold slash of crimson. Maybe 20 inches long. Probably between 2 and 3 pounds.
Nice fish, but it doesn't quite measure up to Zirbes' standards.
He slips it back in the water, where it idles for a few seconds, perhaps wondering what has just happened. Then, with a swipe of its tail, it is gone. Maybe it'll come back in a couple of years as a 5-pounder. Lots of 'loopers do.