The day · Duluth, Minnesota
Afternoon · 2 min left
Sun 10.2° up, in the west · Boreal Forest & Shield
The kind of day it is
Bluebird
Clear, bright and still. The most pleasant day to be out and the hardest one to fish: with no cloud to break the light, fish go deep or under cover and only really feed at the ends of the day.
Go at first light or golden hour and skip the middle of the day.
The day, phase by phase
Happening now · 14:57–18:17
3h 20m long
Afternoon
Where the sun is this minute. Its highest today: 46°.
The angle falls away again, but the ground is still releasing the morning's heat. Air temperature peaks well after the sun does — usually two to four hours late.
Where the light lands · Boreal Forest & Shield
The sun works round to the west and the light lengthens again. The forest's own temperature peaks now, an hour or two behind the sun.
Up close
The forest floor is at its driest and its warmest. Fungal mycelium in the duff has slowed right down and will not fruit until the ground cools and wets again.
The whole landscape
The afternoon breeze is the lake breathing — cool air off the water pushing inland under the rising warm air over the forest, reliably, every clear day.
In the water now
Northern pikebest now
Sitting still in the weeds in one to three metres, facing out, waiting. Pike hunt by sight and prefer daylight to dark.
Yellow perchbest now
Roaming in schools over sand and weed in three to eight metres, feeding steadily all day.
Bluegillbest now
On the beds and the shallow flats, in water warm enough to see the bottom.
Arctic graylingbest now
Holding in the current and rising steadily to anything that drifts over. Grayling feed through the long northern day.
Bright and still pushes fish deep, into shade and under structure. Work the edges of the day.
In the garden now
Hoverflybest now
Hanging motionless in a sunbeam, then darting — hoverflies use warm still air and are strongest in the middle of the day.
Aphidsbest now
On the newest growth and the undersides of leaves, reproducing steadily through warm daylight.
Spider mitesbest now
On leaf undersides. They explode in hot dry weather and collapse in humidity, which is the whole control strategy.
Working flowers from about 13 °C upward, most heavily mid-morning when nectar has risen and the dew has gone.
Peak photosynthesis and peak water loss. Beds dry fast and transplants sulk.
Sitting this one out
Walleye · Lake trout · Brook trout · Green lacewing · Ground beetle · Earthworm
The full guide
Everything for Duluth this week in one place.
Boreal Forest & Shield
The region this day belongs to, and what lives in it.
The almanac
The year's arc: day length, the moon and the water behind the air.
The week ahead for Duluth
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