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Water
Dan Kraker and Derek Montgomery
Grand Marais, Minn.

Photos: Herring eggs are 'Lake Superior Gold' for Grand Marais fishery

Pulling in net
Harley Toftey pulls in a 300-foot-long gill net on to the bow of his Boston Whaler, about a half-mile off the Grand Marais harbor in a turbulent Lake Superior on Nov. 8, 2012. Toftey has fished lake herring in the big lake for 31 years and said there are more herring now in Lake Superior than there have ever been since he began fishing.
Dan Kraker | MPR News

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For about six weeks in October and November, Lake Superior anglers pull thousands of the silvery fish, also called cisco, from the lake's icy waters.

Harley Toftey has fished lake herring in the big lake for 31 years and said there are more herring now in Lake Superior than there have ever been since he began fishing.

Gallery
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Shipping herring roe
Max Ashe (left) pours ice into shipping containers containing herring roe with some help from Ed Walimaa (right).
Derek Montgomery for MPR/Read the story
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Netted fish
Tyler Smith, left, and Harley Toftey, right, pick lake herring, or cisco, out of a gill net in the bow of Harley Toftey's boat. It's easy for fishermen to catch cisco during their spawning season in late October and November, and lucrative. Their roe fetches $8 a pound. The eggs are a delicacy in Scandinavia.
MPR Photo/Dan Kraker/Read the story
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Returning from lake
Harley Toftey, Zack Smith and Tyler Smith return from checking their nets on Lake Superior Thursday, Nov. 8, 2012 at the Dockside Fish Market in Grand Marais, Minn.
Derek Montgomery for MPR/Read the story