ST. PAUL — The sun shone a fiery orange as it emerged over the horizon of Lake Superior earlier this month, as the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior’s new fishing boat motored out from the Knife River marina, battling 4-foot waves, bound for a series of 500-foot nets strung out deep underwater.

“I call it sunrise season,” said Eric Torvinen, fisheries biologist for the Fond du Lac Band, admiring the sun’s spreading glow as the boat glides up to the first net. Torvinen turns on a motor that slowly pulls it in. And almost immediately, glistening lake trout up to five pounds each start to emerge from the water, trapped in the gill net.

“These are high-quality fish!” Torvinen exclaimed. “They’re still alive. They came from cold water. These will taste really good.”

Ashla Ojibway of Superior

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