Coaster brook trout Run in Minnesota

Salvelinus fontinalis, lake-run brook trout — 19 Minnesota rivers on this map carry a run of it, Lake Superior. 19 of them are inside a window as of 1 October 2026.

Where these rivers are

19 run rivers on Lake Superior — the Minnesota shore, each in the colour of its own run stage today.

Lake Superior — the Minnesota shore19 run rivers on this shore, 19 inside a window today Peak run

Drawn 1 October 2026. The ground is the subbasin mesh the app scores in, so the coastline is where the mesh stops rather than a separate shoreline; the mark at each river is its mouth, drawn for every river including the handful whose whole run corridor is under a mile and has no line to show.

Where it runs, and when

Ranked by the rivers the staging estimator models first — the sixteen systems with a USGS temperature gauge behind them — then by corridor miles. Neither is a measure of fishing, and nothing on this page ranks a fishery.

River	Lake	Window	Peak	Miles	Stage
Poplar River	Superior	Sept–Oct	—	25.7	Tail-off
Cross River	Superior	Sept–Oct	—	22.9	Tail-off
Knife River	Superior	Sept–Oct	—	22.4	Tail-off
Sucker River	Superior	Sept–Oct	—	17.9	Tail-off
St. Louis River	Superior	Sept–Oct	—	16.5	Tail-off
French River	Superior	Sept–Oct	—	12.6	Tail-off
Flute Reed River	Superior	Sept–Oct	—	10.4	Tail-off
Stewart River	Superior	Sept–Oct	—	2.4	Tail-off
Devil Track River	Superior	Sept–Oct	—	2.3	Tail-off
Brule River (Minnesota)	Superior	Sept–Oct	—	1.3	Tail-off
Baptism River	Superior	Sept–Oct	—	0.9	Tail-off
Gooseberry River	Superior	Sept–Oct	—	0.8	Tail-off
Split Rock River	Superior	Sept–Oct	—	0.8	Tail-off
Kadunce River	Superior	Sept–Oct	—	0.7	Tail-off
Lester River	Superior	Sept–Oct	—	0.6	Tail-off
Beaver River	Superior	Sept–Oct	—	0.2	Tail-off
Temperance River	Superior	Sept–Oct	—	0.2	Tail-off
Cascade River	Superior	Sept–Oct	—	0.1	Tail-off
Manitou River	Superior	Sept–Oct	—	0.0	Tail-off

Stage as of 1 October 2026. It moves every day and this page does not — current conditions are here.

Identification

A brook trout off the lake: silvered flanks over the vermiculation, with the white-edged fins that give the species away whatever the colour of the fish.

Size

Twelve to twenty inches, and a fish over four pounds is a rare one.

Behaviour in the river

A Lake Superior fish and a restoration story rather than a fishery. Enters after ice-out and again to stage in autumn.

Why it matters here

The coaster is Lake Superior's own brook trout and was nearly gone from the American shore by the 1960s. What runs these rivers now is the result of forty years of restriction and restocking.

Tackle and tactics

Catch and release, and tackle chosen to make that survivable: barbless hooks, a net that keeps the fish in the water, and heavy enough line to land it fast rather than play it out.
Fly: 5–6 weight, streamers and soft hackles. Check the state guide before fishing for these at all — the rules on coasters are not the general rules.

Regulations

Great Lakes tributary rules are not the inland trout rules, and they differ by river and often by reach. Minnesota's regulation summary is here; the state's own guide is the regulation.

Coasters are a managed restoration fishery under special catch-and-release regulations on much of this shore, and the rules differ river by river. Read the state guide for the water you are on.

The rest of the run

Open the lake-run map →Every run river, with where the fish are holding today.Or get BirdTrout on the App Store