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Garden/Farm/White iron


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Has anyone been doing any good latley. Whats the water temp, hows the smallie action ? We are heading up june 21-28 and are staying on garden at deer ridge resort. Last year we went up the 1st weekend of june and had a blast. Alot of topwater action,cranks and tubes. I'm shur the water temp isn't as warm as it should be this time of the year but i'm hoping that comming up 2 weeks later than last year will help. Thanks for any info.

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Just retruned from our place on White Iron. You are correct the water temp is still cool - 60 degrees and water levels are very high. Be carefull out on Garden, some of those deadheads won't be visible. Smallie action is slow. Just now starting to move in shallow. After a great start walleye action has tapered off with fish scattered. Best bite was in 20 FOW - leeches and minnows, some on crawlers. Good luck and post your results and any reports on the Mayfly hatch.

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Looks like I won't get up there until Fall. But based on 8 years going up the 2nd week in July, I would guess you could catch some nice Eyes & Smallies on Farm now. The water is only going to get warmer, and the best fishing s/b coming soon.

Contact Bill & TimberTrail or get a map. Head out to the rock reef not far from their resort. It's hard to rig due to the big boulders.

We have our best luck slip bobbers with tiny glow jigs and large to jumbo leeches for Eyes & Smallies.

For the early am. and night bite.

Early am 5-9 you can fish 4-9 ft. After that start at 10 ft and work deeper. During the late am to late afternoon .

Give trolling shad raps or Husky jerk-baits a try.

Fish anywhere from 5 ft to 25. Sometimes if you get a sunny calm day you will find the big Smallies this way in 5-9 ft. Mid day -afternoon. My biggest 22" came this way. Hit a perch shad rap in 7ft of water. (Released and a graphite will get made this year).

The Eyes are usually a little deeper. Seems like the most prod depths for Eyes are 10-18 ft. But we have caught a fair share in the 20 - 24 depths also.

Don't be suprised if you see schools of Eyes in 10-25 ft. If you see them on your electronics , and can't get them to hit cranks, then sit on top of them with slip bobbers and leeches, or vert. jig them.

Colors for cranks, perch, gold/black, clown, firetiger, tenn. shad, rainbow , blue/chrome, purple perch, chart./silver.

If you want to give the lighted bobber bite a shot (highly recommend it). Fish the reef 5-9 ft . Same presentation glow jigs & leeches. Get out there about 2 hrs before sun set. Start fishing a little deeper. 12 ft or so. About an hour before, then move up shallow.

Alot of times you can follow them from the deeper water up to the top. It's a blast!!!!! We usually stay out an hour and a half past sunset.

Also trolling from the boat launch to the scout camp is also good for Eyes.

I'll make a call to a friend who guides up there and see how he's doing and post as soon as I hear back from him.

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I forgot to mention as far as glow jigs go. Get the ones with red hooks

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thanks guys, Anyone else been up latley, hey nomiss how high is the water compaired to last year at this time.

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I'll be heading up to timber trail/farm lake on the 28th for a week. I'll let you know how I do. It's also worth checking the outdoor column on the ely echo website.

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Thinking about going up to South Farm Lake in a few weeks after I get back from Vegas. Was up there last year and caught nice slabs and good eatin northerns. Didn't have a depthfinder or I prolly would've gotten some walleyes. The bite should be cranking up this week.

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Just spoke with "the Guide" on timbertrail. They are catching Walleyes on the chain, including farm on the rock piles.

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I've been going up there for about 10 years with family and friends but I've never been on Garden Lake. We'll go for walleye, panfish, & some smallies on Farm/S.Farm/White Iron.

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We just got back from our trip on garden/farm/iron the smallie action was great! it was so good we never even tried for walleyes. The surface temp ranged from 68-70 deg. between the 3 lakes. We did find some nice bluegills and crappies to make up our fishfry all bass were C&R. The average size was 1.5 - 2 lbs but I did manage to boat 5 smallies that were 19". I would say 75% of our bass were cought on top water ( rebel pop-r's )the rest on cranks, I never cought 1 bass on a tube witch I thought was odd because everyone said that they were still on the beds. The last day of our trip we desided to load the boat and try a dif. lake. I have herd alot about burntside and shagwa so we stopped by a local bait shop to ask there prefrence he told me both were good but he would do shagwa. We took his advice and I now have a new favorite smallie lake. We fished about three hours before a big storm pushed us off the lake in this time we boated 17 fish and missed at least that many if not more all on top water. Later in the afternoon after the storm had passed I went back by myself and boated 20+ fish. For the day we had 7 fish 18"-19" it was awsome!! all C&R. I am already thinking about next year so I'm wondering about info on some resorts on shagwa lake. We would be looking for somthing with nice clean cabins, a good dock area for the boat, and maby a restaraunt/bar in the lodge. We do know about the Grand view lodge but would rather stay in a cabin. Thanks for any info, CHOMP

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CCY, were you working shallow shoreline structure on Shag?

Check out Stony Ridge Resort. Cabins, restaurant, docks, not sure about a bar though. Right down by Semers Park and the U.S. Forest Service floatplane base.

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So...

Will you be changing your handle to bloopbloop_slurp?!

Good times for sure. Glad you had a successful trip.

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So...

Will you be changing your handle to bloopbloop_slurp?!

Good times for sure. Glad you had a successful trip.

Dude, careful. You're so sharp you'll cut yourself. gringrin

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stfcatfish, we were working shoreline structure and mid lake rock piles. Two things that I found disturbing about this lake was all the garbage (beer/pop cans) along the shoreline and in the shallows, and what is up with "stinky lagoon" not shur if this is the right name or not but there was a creek flowing into the lake with a pipe along side that had grey colored water and grey blobs that would float out into the lake and sink to the bottom. I can't believe that this could be sueage (turds) does anyone know the area that i'm talking about.

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CCY, the area is called Stinky Ditch. Good fishing, bad smelling. Nuff said.

As for the garbage, Shag is the local lake. Has been for 100 years. That means people go there for all manner of things, and just like any lake folks take for granted, some of those people toss whatever garbage they have in the water and on the shore. Locals and tourists alike.

It used to be much, much worse when all the sewage from Ely emptied into Shag. Only the fact that it's a flowage (a river runs through it), allowed it to clean itself out after the city got smart and stopped the sewage inflow years ago. There are a few issues still today, as you saw, but things are vastly better than they used to be. Parents used to freak out when they saw their kids swimming in the lake.

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stfcatfish, Its too bad that people can't pickup after them selves, I dont think that there has ever been a time summer or winter that I havent come in from fishing without picking up sombodys garbage. But I wont let it keep me from comming back next year or maby this fall smile What is the walleye and panfish action like on the lake? I did also catch 1 14" eye on a crank on a mid lake rock pile.

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wanderer, I might consider BLURP,BLURP,SPLASH--YANK smile

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Shags is an excellent walleye lake, which is what most folks fish for when they go there. There are pannies in the lake, but other than that I can't tell you much about that end of the fishery.

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Quote:

Dude, careful. You're so sharp you'll cut yourself. gringrin

You're so quick, you left yesterday... grin

You have mail.

CurtW,

There will be another report after this weekend. Good or bad. I'm still learning the area so I wander (oh, there's another) around alot looking and sometimes I miss.

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Got no mail, Tracy. Did you put a stamp on it and give it to the postal worker instead of hitting the "send" button? gringrin

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Doh!

That woulda been faster. I don't know what the disconnect is...

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Fished White Iron for the first time in a long while on Saturday. Fishing was okay. Had our best luck with crawlers. Fish were near the reefs. Had to release a couple in the slot (19 and 21 inches) but had enought outside the slot for a fish fry.

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Does the lake master chip by chance cover these lakes?

I really appeciate the information

Thank You

Nipper

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I'm not sure. I just purchased two lowrance LMS 520's from Thorne Bros. It came with a 2008 lakemaster chip. I don't have the units installed yet. If you want more info put out another request for me to post, and I'll be glad to post again. With places that have been good for me for catching Eyes and Smallies.

Always glad to help. grin

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Rodmaker, I can not send a email system will not allow any help?

Nipper

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Contact Pat, Josh, Matt, or John @ Thorne Bros in Fridley. They will be able to help as far as the lakemaster chips go. They are a Sponsor. If you need the #, I have it.

Like I mentioned earlier. The Eyes are going very well on Farm. Fish the reef with tiny glow jigs and leeches.

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