Wide open...For what though?

[Wanderer]

I'm wondering if anybody's been on anything. Anywhere in the Ely area. We'll coming up for a few days next weekend and out of all the possibilities for fishing I'm wondering whats been worth spending time on. I did see Ridgerunnr's report.

Smallies, wallies, gators, trout (lake, splake or brook)?

Muskies on Vermilion???

Nothing specific needed---just idears. Any and all are appreciated.

Please don't say a hammer and saw are my best bets!!!

[JustinG]

Yo Wanderer!

Everything has been slow around here, dude. I went out fishing Rainbows on Saturday and didn't get a bite. Word on the street is everything has been slow. You might have to go after bottle bass....

Later,

Justin

[gunflint]

Very slow on the Gunflint Trail also. From a guides perspective all I can say is thank God for smallies.

[threeball]

Two days of hard fishing on the WI chain. Very slow. I found a couple things that worked for short periods, but all in all very slow. Hopefully something changes soon.

[Wanderer]

Thanks guys! That info actually does me more good than you might think!

The weather pattern down here is looking steady and hot so I don't expect much to change by then but I'll still be checking here this week.

Justin, you're right about the b-bass but I can troll all day under those conditions! I've been waiting for that open water basin search for suspended bait and slimers. This could be it.

Forever the optimist.

[Wanderer]

Well....

Vermilion didn't produce but a couple snakes on bucktails and one HUGE smallie tried for it at the side of the boat. I jerked too hard thinking it was a musky and tore out the hook. Man, it was a tank!

Shag on the other hand was very good to us for northerns. The kids and a non-catcher person all caught some on bobber/sucker rigs. I hurled the hardware and came up with some in the 7-13(?) range. A 1 ounce spinner bait tipped with a sucker minnow was the best.

The biggest pike was a little longer than my 36" rule but not 40". It looks bigger in the picture though!

The 3-4 pounders were doing summer saults over a Zara Spook! But not hooking up. A 4 inch topwater prop bait produced a few smallies. One was a VERY stout 18 1/2 incher that went a solid 4 pounds but looks like a much better fish on the phone.

Now I have a mission to get more technologized so I can finally put up the pictures!!! Hopefully soon.

[Steve Foss]

Thanks for the report. Those of us stuck with no time to fish most of the summer can at least live it second-hand.

A spinnerbait tipped with a sucker minnow is the deadliest versatile pike combo I've ever used. I generally go with a chartreuse spinner bait about a half ounce in size and a four-inch minnow. You can bring it in high, just bulging the surface, you can pump it up off the bottom and let it fall back, you can grind it slowly through the weeds. It just seems to make the pike nuts.

[threeball]

I had actually given up live bait for the last few years. Learning new water has me going back. How long is a sucker minnow going to last on the spinner bait?

[Steve Foss]

Depends on how hard you throw it and work it. I hook them from underneath up through the hard part of the skull, and they last a pretty good while. If I'm fishing pike all day that way I'll need three or four dozen.

[Wanderer]

Threeball,

I was throwing a pretty big set up looking for bigger fish. I used the dead ones or about to be dead ones. We carried a strong dozen with us on Saturday and they all died by the evening when I was ready to use them. Heat stress/oxygen deficient, I'm sure. I changed to buying a half dozen (10 by the generous hand) as we headed out each morning and evening. They kept better for the bobbers.

My point being, don't overstock in hot weather.

Gladly, I can say a sucker was only lasting me 5 - 15 minutes before it was used up in a fishes mouth! I wasn't doing any searching as I had these guys pinpointed already. I lob casted with a flippin stick and 35 lb PowerPro during the occasional few minutes a bobber wasn't being towed around for my passenger.

Fish em like Steve said. I bring the hook up from under the jaw and through the nose area in front of the eyes. But you do need to catch bone to keep a good size minnow on.

Take care