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Ely - Babbitt Fishing Reports - Lake Conditions Too.


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Yeah, 13 over 30 inches in the last survey on LLC is pretty cool. Survey also says smelt are marching inexorably east through LLC, and the impacts in cisco/laker spawn and recruitment are already are being felt. I've never fished either lake, though it feels like I could die and go to heaven on either one, and I've pored over maps of each for hours. The Kekekabic map just looks like sweet nectar for lake trout (or deep sea diving.)

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I've never caught anything large out of Kek. Biggest has been 2.5 pounds. I have caught a lot of them though and find they taste a lot better than the lakers I've gotten out of Knife.

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That maybe the bigest Grin I have ever seen. When is the Avatar going to change? laugh

Right about now. grin

We had some other shots from the weekend including action shots of fighting a couple fish that I am posting in the HSO Club forum.

It takes me awhile with my crank start computer. laugh

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

Originally Posted By: leech~~

That maybe the bigest Grin I have ever seen. When is the Avatar going to change? laugh

Right about now. grin

We had some other shots from the weekend including action shots of fighting a couple fish that I am posting in the HSO Club forum.

It takes me awhile with my crank start computer. laugh

At-ta-boy! Nice Avatar. Hey post those pic's for us little people not in the club as well! laugh

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Fished for a few hours today, finally caught my first laker! I never weighed it or measured it, but I think it was around 5 pounds. Caught it on a very steep drop in 30 feet of water.

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Congrats Gunther! Nice fish!

At-ta-boy! Nice Avatar. Hey post those pic's for us little people not in the club as well! laugh

You know the password... winkgringrin

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I'm fairly certain that I will be heading up this weekend and probably hitting Burntside all day on Sat. Pretty sure I'm going to leave the sled at home unless someone can convince me otherwise.

Van Vac with 4wd still OK? Probably get my bait in Tower, what should I get for tipup?

I'll be solo so if anyone wants to join me shoot me an email dtrofishon(at)gmail(dot)com

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Van Vac is great, and there are plowed roads all over the place. One just goes a bit east along the shore. Another goes north to Brownell Island with an offshoot along the south side of Olver and east side of Waters. The one that heads west through the narrows goes all the way up to the northwest side of Waters with a branch that crosses the bay and ends northeast of Dollar Island.

You won't need the plowed roads if you have a 4x4 with good clearance (less than a foot of snow on the main lake), but it's nice to have them anyway, and they go right by a ton of good laker water. Good idea to have a shovel anyway, but in particular you might want to bring one to break down the banks along the plowed roads if you want to split off of them.

Smelt/cisco are both very good deadbait, and Vermilion Fuel and Food has both, I believe. I've been using golden shiners for live tip-up bait with good success this season, and VFF has those, too.

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

I'm fairly certain that I will be heading up this weekend and probably hitting Burntside all day on Sat. Pretty sure I'm going to leave the sled at home unless someone can convince me otherwise.

Van Vac with 4wd still OK? Probably get my bait in Tower, what should I get for tipup?

I'll be solo so if anyone wants to join me shoot me an email dtrofishon(at)gmail(dot)com

dtro, to bad you aren't going up next weekend. I'm heading to the Northshore sleding this weekend, but next weekend I wouldn't mind meeting up with you to fish B/S. wink

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I fished from dawn to dusk today and it was awesome...caught 8 fish the smallest was 5 lbs or so and the biggest im guessing around 10 lbs measured her at 30 inches with a slightly above average girth....came out of 49ft while I was grilling brats. The rest of my fish came out of between 20 and 35ft really it didnt seem to matter what depth it was for me today. My custom tubes were getting it done again "probably because thats all I use anymore" My brother and son fished with me today and my son only seen one fish and my brother seen a few but wouldnt chase. Never made contact with that 15 or 20 lber but my day will come SOON!

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It was a good one...nothing real big but nothing real small either. My brother is still up there and still aint got a fish as of noon today he saw one fish but he said it was a really big band on the tronics. Only thing I did different than him yesterday was wash my hands in scent away soap wich Im not claiming did the trick but it certainly makes me wonder! I probably fished 15 different spots yesterday also and seen fish on all of them and caught fish on most of them. Its payback for all the timid lookers I dealt with up there last week!!

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Thanks MR. chaff heres the pictures and a report from my brother whos still up in Ely while Im pacing the floor. Im only about an hour and 45 minutes away from b-side but with gas prices and the amount of daylight we have in the winter sometimes I just gotta cut my losses! talking to my brother on the phone he had an uneventful day until about 3pm when he got a 29 and 30 inch fish both off new spots and on darker colors then my favorite standby white. My custom tubes will hopefully be for sale Soon and trust me when I say this ...THERE WILL BE NO DISAPOINTMENT!! These baits have out produced every bait in my box hands down! They are not magic but they have got me some huge fish and when I finally got up to burntside 2 yrs ago to test them on a real lake trout lake they amazed even me. I have friends in canada asking about them constantly but when your not mass producing it gets tough to keep up. I still get skunked on b-side from time to time however Im only fishing for fish that are big and Ill take a skunking for the chance at a pig. Im also a muskie fisherman and I bowhunt trophy whitetails so im used to it. Some people just want to catch fish and I can understand that also....believe me my wife is my biggest critic! She has a tough time but the last 2 yrs shes really stepped up her game and was rewarded with the biggest muskie in my boat all year "52 inches 27 1/2 inch girth"

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Like I said My fish came out of 49ft of water while I was grillin lunch ...tryin to send the guys set up next to me in to ely to the restarunt. A spot that typically I stay away from when laker fishing...49ft 3 steps away from a shoreline point. Not that these are bad spots I just personally dont like them for some reason. Im trying to con my wife into letting me head up tomorrow but its not lookin good frown Remember to release those big piglets to fight another day and possibly give some other angler the same thrill!!! Its startin to look like our lake trout future will depend on catch and release to an extent.

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I also must say I had to keep 2 fish that were about 8 lbs wich I typically dont do because lakers are GREASY but they literally swallowed my jig wich has never happened to me while laker fishing. Im still pondering why they were hot on my baits in almost every spot... no chasing no looking just seen bands and BAM!

My best numbers day on b-side for sure!

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seems as though many lakers are caught in winter on burntside, how about soft water? I have fished the lake probally 5 times in the boat, and have not caught one laker. was woundering, how do you guys do in the spring on burntside? or is it just a winter thing there.

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seems as though many lakers are caught in winter on burntside, how about soft water? I have fished the lake probally 5 times in the boat, and have not caught one laker. was woundering, how do you guys do in the spring on burntside? or is it just a winter thing there.

I fish them hard water and soft water. May and June are excellent, July is good, August is tough, September gets better, and then the season closes and we have to wait until January all over again!

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LOL Steve Foss is up at 1am thinking about big trout like me:) cept steve foss will probably be on the ice at some point in the morning and Im stuck in the house like a caged animal:(

I dont fish lakers soft water ...Muskies and early may crappies keep me away but Ive been wanting to fish lakers soft water more often than the 1 time 6 yrs ago that I actually did it. No doubt may and june would be great before a guy has to break out the downrigger.

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No, I just got back from Saganaga awhile ago and have a lot of catching up to do. But I'll be on the ice Monday, when the weekend crowd has gone back to the 9-5. smilesmile

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Maybe my brother will stick a piglet tomorrow....all I can hope for at this point because my wife already made it clear that I AINT GOING FISHING TOMORROW:( ITS UNBEARABLE

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nice fish wanderer! thats a PIG! must have been fun on a tip-up.

nice work lee! sounds like a great day on the ice! you will get that pig.....keep huntin...i just got back from a week in the bdub with some vets...good week...but now its time to FISH...im itchin to get back on bside.

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