duluth BWCA to Duluth Area Fishing Reports

[upnorth]

Fish Lake Crappies?-Are they biting? Have some free time this weekend and thinking of hooking up with the Brother in law(weather permitting) and seeing if the Crappies are willing on Fish Lake. Anyone been out recently?

[Northlander]

Fish Lake Crappies?-I went through a tank and a quarter of gas last week drilling holes up there and I only found a hand full of crappies. Those I saw were very reluctant to bite. They wouldnt take minnows or heads and waxies or shrimp on a Ratso would only get smallish ones and perch. We did find a few better gills but the slabs are really hiding. Next outing will be searching out shallow weed/wood areas.

Good thing is the travel is easy with a 4 by 4 vehicle.

As usual be careful on the ice but there was a lot of ice.

MY back is still sore from that day.

[BD110]

Fish Lake Crappies?-We were out the day after Northlander. We were able to land a few Crappies and a bunch of gills that were to small to keep. We wanted to do a little more looking but we were fighting a bitter wind.

[upnorth]

Fish Lake Crappies?-Are they deep or shallow?

[Northlander]

Fish Lake Crappies?-Thats the problem. We found no numbers in either deep or shallow waters. Im thinking I need to go check some pre spring spots. Every year at this time they go some place. I just have to decide if its worth my time and effort to go search and find them.

My guess is if a guy can find some of the shallow wood piles that the crappies will be there. Im also thinking if they are close to weeds all the better. Just a hunch of course. Who knows they could be eating bugs in shallow layed down weed or weed edges/pockets.

Maybe next week I will give it another try. Im still thinking late March will be good in the pre spring spots.

Right now I have Lakers on my mind.

[upnorth]

Fish Lake Crappies?-I am not that familiar with Fish Lake only fish it with the brother in law and easier to travel down there than the other way around. We found a few spots in the fall, but I don't ice fish it very often and not very serious at that. We may go poke around and see if we can find something.

[opsirc]

Fish Lake Crappies?-was out yesterday for a couple of hours, did not see much on the graph and those that did show up were not interested in biting.

[upnorth]

Fish Lake Crappies?-My prospective fishing partner begged off on me anyway, something about water on the ice. May just have to hit a little lake up and here and see if I can entice a crappie or 3.

[Northlander]

Well I hit Island Lake with Crappies being my objective and hitting as many spots as I could. After getting stuck at the d a m landing and Ripstick pulling me out I was off running.

East side started out promising with 2 12"ers and 1 14.5"er but then the bottom dropped out.

Went west and hit some community holes that didnt produce so I went in search of some new spots.

1st 4 spots didnt produce so I hit another community hole. Got 2 nice crappies and some very nice gills. 2 of wich were true 10"ers and 4 over 9".

With the sun dropping quick I hit 1 last spot not too far from a couple spots fished earlier. Must have been the right time because I got 11 more nice crappies in the 10-12" range.

So all in all it was a nice day to learn some new crappie spots.

By the end of the day a hover craft would have been nice because driving the sled back was very wet and the Otter cover was full of water.

I just may hit it again tomorrow morning but all that fresh air today may keep me in bed longer than I hope too.

[shogun]

Hey Steve - how deep do you fish crappies on island this time of year? are you still looking for the deepest holes?

[fishinfey8]

Nice work NL, wish i could say the same for my island outings.

Fished island a couple times in the past week and found only decent perch. I fished all in all about a dozen different spots; two of which were also "community holes". I managed to catch a half dozen perch that ranged from 10-12 in. thats it.

I have fished fish lake a couple times in the past week as well with lots of small fish. One day I also got into nice perch in very shallow water(I don't know what is with all these perch!). Also caught small crappies and bluegills pretty steadily but they were found in two completely opposite spots.

Went further north two days ago and enjoyed spending the day in the awesome whether and managed a few decent crappies as well! I enjoyed being the only ones on the ice with such a nice day, the fish were a bonus!!

That was my spring break, now back to staring at bricks and mortar....

[Northlander]

Hey Steve - how deep do you fish crappies on island this time of year? are you still looking for the deepest holes?

Byy no means am I a Island Lake Crappie expert. I fished deep back bays. The lake is way down so what should be 30' is more like 25'. I started out in the deeper parts because I got a late start and the sun was high. Later in the afternoon I went into the 14' ranges to find them. No crappies but some dandy gills.

I wound up catching most of my crappies later in the afternoon in 20-24' of water. I even found aback bay with 28' of water and got some gills over 10". For real they were monsters.

[shogun]

okay thanks for the info - I don't think I'll be getting out there on the ice this season, but interesting to know anyway.

[LoticMn]

Still lots of good ice, and a great Crappie bite right now!. I just went out north of Ely on the Echo trail, hit a couple different smaller lakes the last few days and had great luck fishing in 22-35' of water. Using a 1/8 oz green grub stlye jig tipped with a small crappie minnow. the bite each time was hot during the mid-day through early afternooon, and then seemed to slow down.

-Matthew

www.northwoodsguideco.com

[Capt. Russ]

The Babe's team has been going out and spanking the crappies for over a week now. Moving around from lake to lake has been working. The ice still remains at eighteen plus inches and the slabs are falling for jig and waxies or small minnows fished in the deeper holes. A number of these fish are hugging the bottom, and are difficult to spot on the flasher. If you drop your bait to the bottom and slowly raise it you'll see the follow up. Hesitate a foot or two up and get ready for the grab.

Some anglers are still bagging a few lakers on Burntside and Snowbank. Reminder: last weekend for trout

[fishinfey8]

Went up north of island lake yesterday on highway 4 a ways in search of panfish on hardwater...found them in 14-20 fow using banana jigs and waxies...very nice gills and some nice crappies as well. Ice looked like it hadn't been touched by any weather what-so-ever...was a good two ft. thick and wheelers were all over yet.

[titelines]

I'm hoping to get one last good day on the ice and chase some crappies around.

I'm looking to get out this Friday and wanted to get some info on what the conditions are/will be around Ely. With temps in the 40's all week, do you think some of the smaller lakes will still be okay?

Do you think a guy would be able to go out with his ATV and spend the day hopping around in the sunshine?

Thanks Everyone!

[finnbay]

I think you'll still be okay. I'd be careful around some of the shorelines, moving water and shallow reefs.

[Great Outdoors]

Stay off the rivers and creeks.

Dead River that goes from Twin Lakes to Burntside had deteriorated rapidly last weekend.

[threeball]

Garden Lake, down the flow from the conjunction with Farm, is open. It is encouraging to see.

[gunther274]

drove out today, ice was not honeycombed at all, fishin was slowww.... still 24-26" where i was..

[titelines]

Thanks Everyone -

I was thinking of hitting some spots up the Echo Trail. Sounds like it shouldn't be a problem. With the ATV - I'll be checking the ice a lot though.

Should be a beautiful day to hop around.

[titelines]

Just wanted to give a report in response to all the info I received from you guys.

Had a great day. Sun and not a cloud in the sky. Had 16-18" of ice and the shoreline was in better shape than I thought it would be.

Fished from 9:30 to about 6:00 and caught fish pretty much all day. Some were aggressive, others were very finicky. Played around a bit and found a system that seemed to work. Threw back a ton of 7-8" fish, and came back with a 1/2 dozen nice crappie, ranging from 9-12". Fought a couple nice northern on 2# test too - very fun.

Couldn't ask anything more from a last day on the ice this season.

Thanks everyone for their info!

[CPRJoe]

Malberg is a great walleye lake. Try lil Sag around the islands 20-25ft, for Lakers.

[Steve Foss]

According to a couple reports I got this afternoon, opener in the current below the dam on Fall Lake was good, with the early birds mostly getting limits of eaters. Typical early season 'eyes lovin' the current. The bite slowed later, and they were biting really light, I was told.

Talked to a couple anglers off Shagawa as well who had no luck with 'eyes but had plenty of pike and a 4.5 lb smallie.

Sure must have been fun opening in the snow squalls up here. But hey, that's opener in this part of the country!

I had to work.

[finnbay]

I'll post a couple of pix later. Got limits of eaters in a couple of hours while brushing snow off the shoulders. Fish fry for the grandkids tonight!

Promised photos:

Nice weather!

Eaters

[duluthfisher]

Those pictures are great! I was stuck in school all day today and I can't wait to get out there. Thanks for the post.

[Northlander]

WEll opener morning had me at the landing on the river at just before 4am and I was off in no time. Got to a area I like early morning before too many boats hit it and traffic slows it down. Caught numerous fish between 20" and 29" in this spot and they were very concentrated on rock to rubble areas in shallow and up tight to shore. Once boats started running around this spot shut down so I headed down river. I drifted but that did little so I started slip drifting and caught many fish doing that. By now the crowds were out so I ran down river to the top of spirit lake and trolled spinners. Slower down below but did get some nice fish in the 20"-25" range.

Pulled the pin about 4:30 with around 30 fish.

Sunday started off with a bang. Fish #1 was 28" and fish #2 just under 31". Big heads no bodies. Both very well spawned out females. Caught a couple 23"ers and then it just died. Tried several other spots and nothing produced more than one here one there.

Over all nothing was HOT Sunday and I wound up only catching half the fish I did Sat. Both days the mid bite day was slow but Sunday was painful.

One thing is I cant remember a opener weekend where so many BIG fish were caught. Fish between 26" and 32" were being caught pretty regular.

Funny though was that the 23 bridge area that is usually so good was only fair Sat and slow Sunday.

I guess all this would tel a guy there are fish down the river farther than we think.

Ill do some investigating after work today.

So lets here everyone elses opener weekend on the St. Louis River reports.

[xdasher19]

Me, a buddy, and his dad fished the river from noon-6 on saturday. We went out of smithville and started fishing around bouy 83 and fished about to boyscott making many drifts.It was pretty slow but managed 5 between 18-23. Sunday we went out and fished from 12-4 and found most of our success around 80. we got 8 eyes. the best bite was from 12-2 where we got all but one or 2 fish. pink jigs with crawlers caught all but 2 of the fish. The biggest fish sunday was 27 inches along with a couple 23-24

[Xplorer]

Well, here's my non-report. The boat never left the garage. Just could not justify taking two 6 year old's out in that weather on saturday.

Sunday was mothers day, and well, that's that.

Hope to get out thursday for awhile.

Nice job on some nice fish Steve, and congrats on the 3rd place finish!