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Making our first trip to the Ely area to Garden and Farm lakes the second week of August. Looking for some help on lures to use and areas to fish. Mainly smallmouth with some walleye and pike.

I've heard that Garden holds LMB also, any truth to that?

Is it worth buying the permit to get into South Farm?

Sorry for all the questions but appreciate any help.

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welcome to FM. Are you staying at Timbertrail Lodge???

We catch most of our Eyes there on slip bobbers/leeches, and trolling shad raps. Fish the reef area. At night get out there with lighted bobbers in 6-12 ft. During the day fish the deeper water around the reef using slip bobbers and trolling shad raps in water anywhere from 8-25 ft.

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We rented a house on Garden Lake.

I'm not sure what reef you are referring to, can you be more specific. I believe I located a reef on Farm and also one on Garden using a limited lake map.

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The reef in Farm is north of the island that is on the east side of the main basin of the lake. We tend to fish the edges with lindy rigs and leeches. I recommend also trying White Iron, it holds a lot of nice fish and I tend to do better in White Iron than Farm. Try and reefs or points you find in White Iron. When will you be there, I will be there the 8th - 17th.

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You are correct!!!!! If you troll shad raps some of the colors we use are: perch, clown, firetiger, gold/black.

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Thanks for the help! You can just boat through to White Iron from Farm? I did not realize the access was that easy.

We will be there Aug 8-15.

It seems that bass might be a dirty word up there in God's country. Is it a case of most locals not fishing for bass, or is it that the effort to catch them is much less than walleye.

Any info on catching big pike?

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Yes, all you do is go under a bridge at Silver Rapids and you are into White Iron.

The bass fishing on the lakes is excellent and I think plenty of people do fish for them, unfortunately I do not so I won't be much help in the department.

As for big pike, other than in May, I have had trouble finding many pike. The water is stained in color so weeds do not grow very deep, therefore there is not a whole lot of good weed beds to fish in the lakes (I am not too familiar with Garden so I can't speak for that lake). Try Rice Bay in Farm Lake (the bay on the far northeast corner of the lake). I will be in a silver and red Lund Tyee. Stop and say high if you see me.

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Troll shad raps in 10-14 ft of water if you want Pike. We've caught some down by the boat launch. And some right in front of TimberTrail. Troll the reef also, I've caught some there in 7-12 ft. If you get a calm sunny day. Gop out there and throw artificials in 5-9 ft of water. I've seen them out there sunning themselves mid day on the reef.

Alot of people do fish smallies. People fish the top of the reef in farm in the early am. I have caught some nice ones right at mid day doing this throwing slip bobbers & leeches in 7 ft of water. I have two nice Smallies from farm. One 21" and one 22 1/2". The biggest one was caught trolling Shad raps in 12 ft of water on the reef. Perch color

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We will be there Aug 8-15.

Guess that'll make 3 FMer's out there the weekend of the 14-16th. Blue 16 ft Lund with 50 hp yamaha. Fore and aft MinnKota's.

I think the secret word for a greeting should be "Beer?". smile

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Thanks for the info rodmaker. It nice to know that people are willing to give info on "their" spot to others.

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Not a problem. Our family has been going up there for 10 years. Not going to make it this Summer. Maybe a long weekend this Fall.

Post your results. Any more questions let me know. grin

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Beer sounds good!

Tracy, we will be up there all week so stop over when you get there and I can let you know how the fishing has been. I am not sure if we are heading home on Saturday or Sunday, but we will defintely be there Friday night yet.

Hopefully we won't have to dodge any snowmobiles this time shocked

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Yeah, that looked crazy!

I sent your email to my work computer to show the guys. Like you said, cool to see once but after that, pretty annoying.

See ya then!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Make that 4. I'm heading up to Farm lake (Timber Trail) on Saturday for the week (Aug 8th - 15th). Rodmaker gave me some good advice last year and we did pretty good. Looking forward to fun week. Sounds like it's been a little chilly up there.

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Glad to help. Let me know how you did. If you check e-mails during vac. Troll cranks on the reef!!!!!

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I am curious as well. I didn't have the chance to go check the code word out with anybody in the hour and a half I put in on Farm.

For us it was a mad dash just before dark on Friday night and didn't do anything.

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I wasn't staying at Timber Trail but I was up there the whole week. Fishing was really slow the first part of the week but picked up on Wednesday for the rest of the week. We made the mistake of making a tee time for Wednesday morning at 9:30 because we weren't catching much but I managed to find the fish at 8 am and put 5 in the livewell by 8:20 before I had to run in to catch our tee time. I was trying to get the last one to go in with my limit, but 5 keepers in 20 minutes wasn't bad! We didn't catch anything big but managed to relaease a 20", 2 - 21", and a 22".

We went to Basswood on Thursday and brought back our limit of walleyes. Also managed to boat a fat 20" smallie that weighed almost 5 lbs, that was fun!!

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Nice job Nate. smile

I was going to swing by Saturday but saw you pulled the cover over the boat. Figured you were buggin out.

We didn't get to really fish much for the three days we were there. A little here and little there.

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Yeah, we headed out around 9:30 Saturday morning, so we were probaly gone already when you were going to stop by. I dind't fish a ton either, with my son now it is hard to get out as much. I managed to fish every morning from 6 - 9 or so and then usually didn't go out again until 7 - dark. Still a fun trip though, I can't wait till my son is older and can come with!!!

We caught most of the fish on the reefs in White Iron. All the fish were on leeches. We also found some fish on a couple of shorelines and we did catch a couple on the reefs in Farm.

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We are heading up to Garden lake the week of Sep 12th...been keeping an eye on this thread. Hope that the fishing is great!

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Fishing has remained frustrating. You can get some fish if you put in the time, but you have to work for them.

September 12th might put you there during some nice fall color.

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I doubt the walleye bite will be the same for you but for what's its worth... The Chain was very consistent this past weekend. Found walleyes schooled up in 18-26 FOW. Mainly 14-18 inchers with a couple of slot fish - no monsters. Crawlers outfished leeches 3 to 1. Pink (go figure)hooks outfished green, red and orange. When you're up in mid-September my guess - it'll be minnows in deeper water say 20-30 feet. Good luck, keep moving, and keep only what you need and CPR the remainder.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • JerkinLips
      41.6°F in Stuntz Bay Thursday morning.  Left my boat in the water to hopefully fish more before the lake freezes.  Caught four 9-11" walleyes in 2½ hours before I gave up due to the strong west wind.  Water level has not gone up more than a couple of inches at the most.  May be a good winter to jack my boathouse out of the water on the deep end.
    • Troy Smutka
      The calendar migrators from the Dakotas have been passing through central MN in trickles the past few weeks, and the recent cooler weather has some Canada ducks starting to show up. We have been harvesting mallards, pintails, gadwalls, wigeon, shovelers, greenwing teal, canvasbacks, redheads, bluebills, and ringnecks in decent numbers.
    • SkunkedAgain
      It doesn't look like the lake level has gone up at all. I was up a week ago and struggled to get my boat in and out of the public landing on the west end of Head O Lakes. I used my paddle to push the boat further out to deeper water. I could hear the hull moving over the sandy/muddy bottom near the launch.
    • JerkinLips
      Pretty tough.  Was catching about 2 walleyes per hour and the biggest was only 13".  Back up Thursday so I hope I have better success.
    • smurfy
      the kid and I always check our stands prior.......i'll go back to check the conditions of said stands before he gets there to see what we need. while i'm at it if i can i shoot at grouse with shells that appear to not have bb,s in them!!!!🙄
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the South Shore...  With unseasonably warm weather, there are still some anglers hitting the water and most have been rewarded.  Limits of walleyes and saugers being caught, and the forecast looking ahead is favorable. The best bite on the south end of LOW has been in 22-28 feet of water. Water temperatures are dropping and as the temps cool further, the bite has been excellent.     Vertical jigging with frozen emerald shiners has been the program for most anglers.  Bring plenty of bait, as you’ll need to sort through some smaller fish and short biters.  Plenty of eater fish to be had, just have to do a bit of sorting.  Anglers are also reporting very good numbers of jumbo perch and occasional pike mixed in with the walleyes.     For those fishing structure, if you slide up on top of a rock pile, don't be surprised to catch a big smallmouth bass, there are plenty around.   This week’s hot colors have been gold, gold/glow white, gold/chartreuse, gold/orange, and gold/glow white/pink.     One tip, a stinger hook on your jig will catch you more fish if you start missing too many fish. On the Rainy River...  Bait dealers are reporting good numbers of shiners in the river this past week.  Interesting, each night is different.  Some areas have the small shiners called pinheads.  Other areas have the larger minnows.     The river is producing some nice walleyes in various spots from Four Mile Bay to Wheeler's Point, to Baudette all the way to Birchdale.  There are 42 miles of navigable Rainy River from the mouth to Birchdale with plenty of public boat ramps along the way.     Walleyes are being caught in various depths, but 15-25 feet of water has been good.   Jigging with live or frozen emerald shiners has been highly effective. Some anglers are also trolling crankbaits to cover more ground and find fish. Both methods are producing solid results. Sturgeon fishing has been strong.  The catch-and-release sturgeon fishing is open into the spring when it changes to the "keep season" on April 24th. Up at the NW Angle...  Fall fishing continues to be excellent. Points, neck-down areas with current, shoreline breaks, and transition zones from rock to mud are all productive locations for walleye right now.   It is traditionally a mixed bag up around the many islands in this part of the lake and this fall is no different.  In addition to walleyes, pike, jumbo perch, and crappies are in the mix.  A jig and minnow has been the most effective presentation. Good muskie fishing is the norm during the fall of the year and area reports have been good.  In addition to casting, trolling shorelines, points and neckdown areas has been effective.  Muskies are often targeting schooling tullibees this time of year. The weather forecast for the next couple of weeks is conducive for fall fishing.  If you don't deer hunt, or if you have harvested your deer, consider some bonus walleye action before the ice forms.  The bite continues to be excellent.    
    • leech~~
    • gimruis
      I'm not one to leave that to chance the day I need it.  I always check on my stands prior to the season.  Just like I always shoot my rifle before the season and I always run my outboard motor before fishing opener.  Too many things to go wrong without confirming it ahead of time.   I guess it could have been beavers but the house itself didn't appear nearly big enough along one ditch.  It was about the size of chair.  I've seen beavers houses many times before and they appear much bigger than that.
    • leech~~
      Good thing you made a check run.  That would have really suked walking into opening day.  Why do you think muskrats and not beavers?  
    • gimruis
      Well I checked on stands over the weekend.  Kind of a disaster.   All the ditches are plum full and twice as wide becauase muskrats have clogged an area.  I spent an hour unclogging it and the water is slowly moving again, but our bridges and planks were underwater.  The back portion of the land where the best stand is was inaccessible.  Hopefully that changes by Saturday.  I have a feeling the muskrats are just going to clog it back up again.   Tons of standing corn still too.  They've started on it, but being so wet now with more rain coming, whatever's there will remain there for the foreseeable future.   All the grassland is completely flattened like a pancake due to 3-4 inches of heavy wet snow.  That eliminates about 75% of the pheasant habitat in this spot.  Total buzz kill.  And this specific spot was one of my better producers last season because the grass was intact and lush through December last year.
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