Burntside Fishing/Conditions Report...(updated-3/30/09)

[Lee Lane]

I just wish i would have seen some bigger bands on the electronics, one nicer fish caught and one nice sized band on the electronics in 3 days of fishing is BRUUUUTAL ...and hard to keep me focused. Atleast when im seeing lots of fish but not catching much I can stay into it ..but thats paying my dues I guess.

[jasonlane]

about the smaller baits

i had a couple bigger bars go after my chrome swivle

[Steve Foss]

Jason, I had to laugh at that. When the laker going gets really tough, when there are lookers but nobody can get anything to go on traditional laker gear, there are a handful of guys who fish Bside who go ultralight, with panfish jigs and waxworms, and they catch fish, including some big ones.

Lake trout are still trout, and trout do like their bugs.

[218RIDERZ]

A BUDDY AND I ARE HEADED BACK UP TO BSIDE FOR OUR LAST ICEFISHING INLAND LAKER TRIP THIS SEASON. WILL BE UP IM THINKING ON WED OF NEXT WEEK. ARE ANY OF YOU FELLAS GOING TO BE OUT AND ABOUT ON THE LAKE THAT DAY ?

[Leaddog]

This laker hit on Knife a couple weeks back...

...jigged a good one in the afternoon. Saw it on the vex after loosing the meat on a spoon, opened the bail and let her drop with more bait. Just before it hit bottom, line started flying out. Closed the bail, tightened and set the hook (so I thought.) Landed it and saw my spoon swinging loose. The line had half hitched around its head under the gill plates!

The brass swivle was in its mouth.

...at least it wasn't snagged.

Knife bound Friday AM

[hovermn]

Steve,

Think you guys will be driving out next weekend, or will this weekend be the last for trucks? I'm heading up next Fri-Sat. A few friends are involved with The Music Man showing at the VCC theater, so I figured I'd check it out. I plan on spending quite a bit of time out on Burnie trying to get onto my first laker of the year! Yeah, last weekend...Cutting it pretty close I know!

The rain moving in this weekend won't help me much, but I'm trying like heck to get my hovercraft up and running again to bring up. If I do, how would you like a ride? Of course, payment would be to have a heck of a good time chasing lakers!

Whatcha say?

[Steve Foss]

Bud, I think you'll be the walkin' man that late in the season. And bring knee-high rubber boots, at least.

I think tomorrow will be fine for trucks, Saturday OK, Sunday marginal and after that, if the NWS forecasts are on target, it'll be ATVs for a day or two and then walking.

That is just my opinion, and the weather, which the latter-day weather professionals show no consistent ability to predict even a day in advance, trumps all.

[hovermn]

Walkin'? Did you miss the part about the hovercraft? With that, I don't care about the ice condition But, if you have other things going on.... lol

[Steve Foss]

Yeah, I did miss that part. I've never fished out of a hovercraft. Sounds like a week from this coming weekend is as good a time to die as any, so I'm in, and since we'll probably die, you don't need to worry about paying my guide fee. Or maybe I'll just give you a rousing chorus from The Music Man. I used to tread the boards with song and dance myself.

If the weather keeps up, we'll be vertical jigging for sure but without drilling holes.

[hovermn]

Well, I was NLAA's Lighting designer for 3 years back in the late 90's, and while I've never seen the Music Man, I could treat you to a few others! Off topic a bit, but did you by chance catch the Ice Fishing Play back in '98 or '99? What a great show that was!

[Steve Foss]

No, I moved up here in March '03. While some of the locals have been putting pressure on me to get back up on stage, my experience was a LONG time ago, and there's only so much time in the day.

Lakers, that's the thing, not the stage. Enough of this thespian bullsmack!

[hovermn]

you don't need to worry about paying my guide fee.

Your fees? I was speaking of my own. Small price to pay for full access to the lake

Anyway, we'll see if it's running by the time I leave.

[Great Outdoors]

218RIDERZ,

Yep, I will be out on the lake pretty much everyday until the trout season ends.

[218RIDERZ]

AWESOME, MAYBE WE COULD MEET UP AND B-S AND MAYBE YOU COULD HELP US OUT ABIT ?

[bmc]

Great Outdoors,

Myself and Bill Powell, owner of Fred's Bait here in Deer River are tenatively planning on making our first trip up to Burntside this coming Wednsday. Do you think ATV's will still be an option then? More importantly, will you be out that day and want to meet up with us? I've gotta talk to Bill this weekend and see for sure what our plan is, so I'll post here as soon as I know.

Brian

[Great Outdoors]

bmc,

ATV's should be just fine on the lake Wednesday but wear waterproof gear for the ride, as there will most likely be water on the ice.

Give me a call at my shop either tomorrow or Sunday 8 am- 1 pm and we can figure out a time and place to meet.

I bought bait from Bill's dad Willie (in Effie) for quite a few years before Bill bought Fred's Bait.

[Great Outdoors]

218RIDERZ,

Sure can, give me a call at the shop the same time as I gave bmc in the previous post.

[KG243]

Well my brother and I hit the lake hard all day on the 19th, and all we had where lookers. We had a stressful last couple of hours as our flashers were lit up like crazy with lakers. We threw everything we had at them with no luck. We tried teasing them up and down the water colum but not a one would comit! It sure was a blast seeing them chase us for two hours straight! At tiumes we had two to three on the screen. We went home with our tails in-between our legs! Steve we will be giving you a call next winter to book a day. I am hooked without even getting one yet! I will be back next year for sure!

[Surface Tension]

KG243, you might have been seeing smelt. Not that you'd do anything different when smelt are below. When the smelt disappear its a good indication a laker is there. He'll come in fast, the smelt will scatter leaving your lure a target. What you do next could mean a hook up or not.

Rule #1 when you see a griz, don't run. Running will trigger the instinct to chase.

Same is true for lake trout but in this case your looking to get mauled. As I said it happens fast. When the smelt scatter so should your lure but your not going to hide in the rocks and like a Griz, if you and your buddy run, you better be faster then your buddy. In this case your lure will be that slow guy. Action should look like an injured smelt using small flips. The fleeing part will be to raise the lure.

How fast and and how far matters, thats what the sounder is for.

You'll be watching the hunter in the chase.

Proper gain setting will clue you in sooner when the laker comes in and give you a better idea of whats going on below you.

When you see the debates over brands of flashers

you'll hear target separation, fine line resolution, watts, and so on. This is where all that comes into play. If you just want to see your lure and a fish, any flasher will do that, but you have the capability to see so much more.

Distinguishing between those split seconds when a laker comes in and scatters smelt will be fine tuned. Adjust your gain so that your lure is marked as weak return color. Smelt should be marked as you weak return color as well. If it happens that the smelt mark a hotter color fine tune the gain to the smelt and lure.

Of coarse there will be times when multiple smelt at the same depth will mark a hotter color but you'll see those returns converge. Now your setup to see a laker when it first enters your cone angle as a weak signal, then medium to your hot color as it comes in closer. Your gain is tuned to show only lake trout as red.

As a rule when smelt are on the bottom I'll jig just above them. I like separation from my lure and smelt, a few inches is usually enough. If the smelt are up off the bottom I'll jig just below them. If a mark something getting on my lure, having the gain adjusted as mentioned, I'll know if its a smelt or a laker coming in. What I do next matters.

[218RIDERZ]

WELL HOPEFULLY THIS RAIN DOWN HERE IN DULUTH IS SNOW FOR YOU FELLAS UP NORTH? IM STILL PLANNING ON WED THIS WEEK TO HIT UP BSIDE. ANYONE AROUND THE LAKE, COULD YOU KEEP US POSTED ON THE ICE SITUATION ?

[fishingmike0770]

ice was still plenty thick on sunday so we drove around, 3-22, no luck catching any fish for us guys but were new to the sport and marked a few so ha that was kinda exciting

[218RIDERZ]

GREAT OUTDOORS, I MISSED YOU BY A DAY. WHAT SHOP DO YOU WORK AT ?

WERE TRYING TO FIND A BAIT SHOP OPEN ON WED MORNING.

[Steve Foss]

I've never been one to give glum ice condition/fishing reports, but I've included the weather forecast for the next few days. We've had 1/4 inch of freezing rain overnight, and it's going to continue, and then add some snow on top. I expect Bside will be OK for wheeler and foot traffic for the next week or so, but it's going to be ugly highway conditions and strong winds here for the next few days. It's a case where traveling to Burntside will be more dangerous than traveling on Burntside.

Today: Rain or freezing rain likely, becoming all rain after 1pm. Cloudy, with a high near 34. Southeast wind around 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. Total daytime ice accumulation of 0.1 to 0.3 of an inch possible.

Tonight: Rain. Low around 32. Southeast wind around 20 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 80%.

Tuesday: Rain likely. Cloudy, with a high near 37. Southeast wind between 15 and 20 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%.

Tuesday Night: Freezing rain likely. Cloudy, with a low around 26. East wind 10 to 15 mph becoming north. Winds could gust as high as 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%.

Wednesday: Snow likely. Cloudy, with a high near 28. West wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 15 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.

Wednesday Night: Scattered snow showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 17. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

[bmc]

This weather really stinks!!! Great Outdoors, it was great talking to you yesterday and thanks for the info and telling me all of Steve's hot spots.........just kidding Steve! My friend and I are gonna talk things over on Tuesday and see what's what. I'm really looking forward to my first trip to B-side, I hope it happens this Wednsday!

Brian

[Steve Foss]

Hope you can make it up, Brian. Highs in the upper 20s on Wednesday with 15 mph winds won't be much problem, if a fella can get here safely.

I'm hoping to make a couple more trips out, but with no wheeler I may be walking. Have to see what the ice looks like after all this sloppy weather.

[Great Outdoors]

218RIDERZ

I see from your post that you are from Duluth??????

You should pick up bait from Scotty at Fisherman's Corner, or Vermilion Fuel in Tower on your way through.

That way you can swing right over to Burntside and won't have to come into Ely.

My home phone is 218-365-6272, and I'll be home tonight if you need any additional info.

Weather looks real "challenging" for Wednesday

[bmc]

Steve,

There will be just 2 of us coming up Wed. w/ 2 4 wheelers. We're planning on being at the Van Vac access around 8am. If you wanna fish with us you're more than welcome to catch a ride w/ me on my wheeler. As I said in the previous post, we'll know for sure tomorrow if we're gonna make it on Wed. I'll post here tomorrow night if we decide to cancel. I'm hoping the weather settles down, I'm off all week and NEED to fish!

Brian

[Steve Foss]

Brian, shoot me an e-mail and we can talk. My addy is always in my sig below.

[Lee Lane]

Catching Lakers is alot like making my daughters kitty cat chase a rubber toy tied to a piece of string. Ill argue to the death about electronics though;):)

[Steve Foss]

We can argue to the death about anything. Much more fun just to fish.