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Headed for White Iron in a couple of weeks looking for walleyes. Never been there. It looks faily shallow for that size lake. Looks like a lot of islands. I'm guessin minnows is the way to go. Just kind of wondering what kind of bottom is there. Are there rocks all over or just certain islands that are rocky? Any advice is appreciated. Can't wait to get up there. The colors should be pretty awesome by then.

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Alot of rocks. I would motor over to Farm and fish Eyes. Find the reef, and troll cranks (shad Raps or husky jerks). or use minnows

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RM - Thanks for the info. Any suggestions for colors? My cranks are pretty basic (firetiger, perch, clown). It sounds like the water is a stained color so I'm wondering if it's worth going after them during the day if you go a little deeper. One of the reports I saw mentioned muskies? I see cisco are present too. Should I expect any run-ins with a musky?

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No ciscoes in the White Iron chain.

No musky either, but some good size northern!

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It is defintely worth going after them in the middle of the day! We have caught many fish in the middle of the afternoon on White Iron. I usually fish the chain early in the year (May and June) so I really can't help you out at this time of year, but just try fishing shorelines and points in White Iron. You may catch more fish in Farm but the size is generally much better in White Iron.

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Again give Farm a try grin.gif

The water color is stained. If there's a wind, they may be in 5-8 ft. You could try depths anywhere from the shallow range I mentioned, or go down to 30 ft. Use the size 11 taildancers to get down this deep. If ther'e not shallow , my guess would be to try depths 10-20 ft.

I would use shad raps, and husky jerks. grin.gif Pick up the precision trolling guide or the Rapala tackle box guide. They give trolling depths along with how much line to let out.

Productive colors on Farm that have worked for me are clown, firetiger, blue chrome, gold/black, perch, tenn. shad, crayfish, chart/silver. grin.gif

You may catch some "monster" smallies this way also. Last year in July I was trolling the reef mid day sunny 10 ft of water and I caught and released a 22 3/4 " Smallie. What a blast. grin.gif

I'm getting a graphite replica made probably next year. If you catch a trophy, photo it, measure the length and release it. Matt up at Artistic Anglers is the best as far as graphite replicas go. I have 3 fish done by him.

Post your results back here or shoot me an e-mail and I can give you a few more spots to try.

I know the guide who works out of TimberTrail Lodge does very well on sizes and numbers in Fall. last year he caught 2 right around 10lbs. trolling cranks!!! Now does Farm get your attention!!!!!

[email protected]

Good luck!!!!!!

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Creek Kid

Fish have been pushed deep. Troll a mid size sucker on a plain hook in about 20-35 feet (experiment with the depth)

This will work for walleye, bass, or northern.

Minnows seem to be the ticket now.

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You could try it, but the plain hook with sucker seems to be better.

I tried the jig/minnow a few days ago, not even a bite. confused.gif

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Spent the weekend fishing the chain so here's a report that may help. Walleyes are scattered - both location and depth. Found fish on smooth bottom and on rock piles. Found fish in as little as 5 FOW down to 28 FOW. Clearly a minnow bite with Rainbows outperforming suckers for eyes and suckers producing good northern action. Some action on rigs and a night crawler. Colored hooks out produced bronze or black. Try blue, red, green - metal. Jig/minnow or slip sinker. Cranks got nothing except toothy critters. It's a mixed bag right now. Multiple species found together. One pass on a rock pile in 22FOW - walleye, smallie, nothern, perch and crappie. Best advice - keep moving and look high and low.

Tight lines and file a report.

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Thanks for all the info. I think I'll invest in some rainbows and suckers and see what happens. Definitely gonna check out Farm too. I don't have any marble-eyed wall ornaments yet. Maybe this trip will be the charm. I'll be sure post when I get back. Gotta pack! Chat later.

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Give Farm a shot. It may be a little early, but I know that in Oct Farm gets a good crankbait bite going. Contact Timbertrail Lodge, Bill will give you an honest report. They have a guide thart works out of there. I think his name is Rob. I know he does well trolling Cranks on Farm.

Post your results!!!!

Good Luck

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  • 2 weeks later...

Got back from White Iron and it was SLOWWWWWW. For 4 day of fishing I had 1 perch, 1 walleye, and 1 northern. The rest of our group fared about the same. The biggest walleye in our group was 17". One guy had a real nice Crappie. The wind was around 20 everyday, then a storm blew in on the last day when we were getting things figured out. Never did get over to Farm. Each time we wanted to the clouds scared us back. We marked a lot of fish and found some great spots that are probably working now. The action we did find was in the 17-22' range over rocky bottoms. All we used were leeches and rainbows. The shallow humps not relating to shore never had anything going on. Exposed rock piles close to islands seemed to be best. Fish were definitely scattered. The ones we marked were never there when we came back the next day. We did a lot better with the info from this forum than if we had gone in blind so a big Thanks to everyone.

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Creek Kid - Nice report! Let me add a little. Looks like our trips overlapped toward the end. Following covers 9/28 through 9/30. Can confirm walleyes between 17 - 22 FOW but we caught most a little deeper at around 26 - 28 FOW just off the rocks on smoother bottom. Wind was so tough Saturday and Sunday we fished the lee sides only. Minnows with colored hooks bettering plain bronze - any color, but pink metal faired the best followed by green. Some fish on jig (orange)/minnow/piece of twister tail combos - big presentation. No northerns or smallies but some crappies and bigger perch mixed in with the eyes.

My guess is that with a couple of days of consistent weather the eyes will be putting on the feed bag. Also heard that previous weekend was excellent if you were fishing in current areas - fish moving to warmer water after the runoff from the big rains.

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That's one nice thing about fishing Farm. Seems like no matter how heavy of a wind, you can always fish it.

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Farm can get pretty windy at times. Just last week we tried to anchor off the windy side of the islands for Walleye. Took a couple attemps to get the anchors to take hold. I had heavy ones with thick chain link(4 foot) tied to rope. The chain keeps the anchor at an angle to grab the bottom. Once they took hold we were fine. Had to let out more rope and run the motor to get them unhooked when it was time to move. Probably hooked some rocks etc. but they held. We ended up hiding behind the islands where the river comes through the lake chain. White caps accross the whole length of the lake to get back to the lodge. It was sunny but still needed rain gear on to keep dry. That was a windy afternoon on the lake.

Dave

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It can, but in 9 years of fishing Farm. (week at a time vac, in July) I think there have only been 4 -5days when we haven't been able to fish.

Have you had good luck on farm for Eyes??? Prior to this outing????

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This is the first year I caught Walleye in Ely for the three times I been there. No Walleye on Farm this year. White Iron and the river for this lake chain. We tried all over. Found some good spots in Farm and only could hook large Perch/Pike/Bass/Crappie. We fished all the traditional places you see people fishing all the time. Even tried to troll Reef Runners over the main lake structure with no luck. The Walleye were biting very lightly when lifting your jig. Deep holes in the river and the mid lake humps in White Iron when there was a chop on the water.

Dave

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