Ely - Babbitt Fishing Reports - Lake Conditions Too.

[Steve Foss]

Looks like more sunny high pressure warm weather all week, too. Highs forecast from 33 to 42 under clear skies into the weekend, with lows around the single digits. That's going to deliver a bit of melt-freeze, melt-freeze.

And watch out for that sunburn! All three days I was out, from Friday to yesterday, I should have pulled the sunblock off the shelf and brought it along!

[sheephead2]

How come some of the Lakers are darker colored.. Like Lee Lane has a darker one are they a different strain laker

[Steve Foss]

It's hard to say. The DNR has been stocking the Gillis Lake strain of laker in Bside for many years, so whatever limited spawning/recruitment success that has been building in Burntside has likely been a combination of what native fish remained after the smelt took over and the Gillis strain, with intermingling of the strains pretty common, I should think. After years of interbreeding, I doubt there's a way to really separate many of them anymore, except that of course stocked fish have a clipped fin.

But even on lakes that have not been stocked, you still see that color variation between fish.

I will say one thing. I've never seen a Burntside fish of 30 inches or more that wasn't one of the dark variety. Some of them look darn well black on top and bronze underneath, like the one you mentioned that Lee is holding. I've also yet to see a 30+ incher with a clipped fin out of Burntside.

[Lee Lane]

All of the clipped fin fish Ive caught on b-side this year have been really beat up lookin with a weird line down the middle of the fish along its lateral line.

[finnbay]

Tough to explain the color variation out of the same body of water. My experience has been that a lake tends to have fish of a particular color. Sunday Lake for example, has lakers that are almost totally black, while The Man Chain almost have a blue tinge to them. Weird!

[caseymcq]

A SWAG I have had on the fish having different colors is that they either develop a color to match their surroundings while they are growing or they are able to change color based on their surroundings.

The fish in the pictures below are from the same lake. The first picture was taken of fish caught in the main area of the lake which was open and expansive. The bottom pic, with the darker one, was in a somewhat isolated bay with steep walls and comparitively darker / lower light conditions than the main lake.

[finnbay]

Interesting stuff, Casey. How big a lake were these fish taken out of?

[Great Outdoors]

Real nice fish, Casey!!

Who caught them??

[thedeadsea]

From my experience, it seems like the less clear lakes (comparatively speaking) that hold trout have darker, smokey colored trout with the dark bellies.

Ogish, Bside, and La Croix fish seem to be on the darker side, while fish from ultra clear lakes like Knife usually are very pale silver. I did catch one on Knife last winter that was green with orange fins, almost like a coaster. Vermilion Trout lakers seem to be somewhere in the middle, a more medium silver/grey but still having a white belly.

Or does eating smelt make them darker? That would explain Bside and LLC but not Ogish.

[JBMasterAngler]

Personally I think water color makes the primary difference, with forage a very distant 2nd. I've caught lakers out of lake superior and greenwood lake and they are very pale gray/silvery hue. These lakes have gin clear water. I've caught lakers out of gunflint lake and they tend to be very dark brown. Clarity in gunflint is really good, but has a darker color to it. That's just my 2 cents.

[Steve Foss]

Personally I think water color makes the primary difference,

I think that's probably pretty true on a lot of lakes. On Burntside, however, I don't really know what to think, because I can catch the more pale green/gray fish from the same spots I catch the black/bronze ones.

It's a mystery to me.

[mikesdad]

i fished the red river for the Greenbacks. They were the most different colored walleye I have ever seen. I have to believe its mostly the water color. my good guess with the lakers on burntside would be the depth changes. some are in 80 feet others are in 20 feet. some if not most are in both but spend more time in one than the other. the deeper , the darker? just my thoughts

[Steve Foss]

Today we saw more fish than we'd been seeing the last few days, including this nice 5 lber. We fished deeper that we'd been doing, from 70-90 FOW. First spot was two hours of nothing, except for the ice fog panoramic shown below.

Fished the second spot from about 11 to 3:30, and that's where the 5 came from. Got to break in the new 45" Gary Roach rod, too.

Looking southeast toward the gap between Waters Island and the south shore just after sunrise (three images stitched together in Photoshop).

Pretty green fish (background substantially altered digitally.

[fishgutz77]

My thoughts on this one is bottom color and content. fish are white in the belly and dark on top due to predation factors and a fish on the sand is a different color than one on clean rock or dirty rock and so on. Eagles and Osprey have a harder time spotting fish that match the bottom content well due to a birds eye view. Some guys I know on the fishing circuts will never fish in anything but a white bottom boat sighting this natural view thereoy.

Just a thought

Can't wait to see everyone at the bash

[KG243]

Looks like a nice lake to fish, I think I will drive up and fish it tomorow and maybe Thursday!:)

[Mike Stark]

nice fish foss...how did that the rod handle?? still havent got mine in the mail...hopefully soon

why did you alter the background???? if you dont mind me askin...was the fish on the bottom in that deep water or flyin high?

[Steve Foss]

All the way on the bottom, Mike. Didn't need any cat and mouse, tho. Rod is the best handling rod I've ever used for lakers.

[lakerunner]

Nice photos Steve and a nice fish!

[caseymcq]

How big a lake were these fish taken out of?

The fish were out of Lower Manitou in Ontario. I think Lower Manitou, Manitou Straights and Upper Manitou altogether are 30,000+ acres. About the same size as Lac la Croix. So a good sized lake. I think there was about 5 miles between the two spots I caught those fish in.

[Spearing Machine]

Dang Steve! You are on a roll this winter!! Way to keep yourself and the clients on some fish. I am just a tad upset I wont make it up there over spring break..I hate priorities.

[BRULEDRIFTER]

As for the different colors in fish, I tend to believe it has to do with the diet of the fish.

I have out of multiple lakes, caught fish out of the same spots even, that have had different color variations. I also have seen them in different sizes in said lakes that show differences in color as well, so that rules out the size of the fish being the determining factor.

We all know how the diet of a fish dictates the color and flavor of the flesh, and in my experiences I've noticed the cleaner colored fish all seem to have a nice pink/salmon colored flesh, where the darker colored fish tend to have a more whitish colored flesh. Maybe, I'm wrong here, (I've never performed an actual study of this, just going off the top of my head; and also a lot of the darker fish I have caught do tend to be bigger and get let go, too) but I think it is what causes fish to differ in color.

I also wouldn't doubt that there is some genetics involved, too. Especially between some of the really dark fish, like the one Lee posted.

Anyway, that's what I think.

[Lee Lane]

I think Im no fisherys biologist but it seems to me the aqua clear lakes I fish north of grand rapids yield lots of fish that are green but still have the orange fins... atleast the mature fish, though Ive caught a few fish from bluewater and caribou that were very dark from top to bottom wich leads me to believe maybe some of the natural spawned fish tend to run darker but then again Ive never caught a fin clipped fish even close to 10lbs out of any lake holding lakers. Out of b-side I catch some fish that are so brown they look like an old piece of leather as well as the more green looking lakers. Maybe the 2 strains of trout they stock are cross breeding who knows.

[FishNovice101]

Got to break in the new 45" Gary Roach rod, too.

Steve,

I'm coming up for The Bash and am wondering what rods to bring. What is the sensitivity on that one?

I'm thinkin Med/Hvy or Hvy ice rods. What about a summer UltraLite?

Char

[Steve Foss]

Summer ultralight is too light and willowy.

The Roach rod is classed as a heavy, but that's using the walleye scale. For lakers, I'd say it's med to med/heavy. That's just a touch on the light side (and isn't the best jigging stick for heavy lures), but with its added length and strong butt it really allows you to set the hook with authority and play the fish with strength. I'm using it for spoon jigging, with a slightly stouter 40 inch rod for Jigging Raps and heavier lures as my two go-to rods now that I'm not fishing out of a flipover shelter.

Typical good commercial laker rods come in 34 to 36 inches and are classed as MH or H. They are long enough to give you enough rod to take the shock of a laker runing and thrashing but short enough to use in any flipover of permie shack.

Polar makes a nice inexpensive (under $15) Polar Lites PL-34H in a spinning rod that's just right, and the Jason Mitchell Mackinaw at 36 inches and MH is a good baitcasting laker stick, as a couple examples. The Mackinaw will cost you more than twice the price of the PL-34H. I put Shimano 2000 or 2500 series reels on the spinning rods and Ambassadeur 4600 or 5500 reels on the Mackinaws. These are the setups I give customers to use who don't have their own gear. I use 12 lb mono and 15/4 superbraid on all my dozen or so rigs.

Definitely avoid the short stout bright blue pool cue rods made by Polar.

[FishNovice101]

Thanks for the quick response!!!

I am very excited about the Bash. Now we just need to make sure we can get around on the lake. It will be ATV or AWD Hyundai.

[Steve Foss]

If an ATV is your other mode of transportation, you'll be fine one way or another. Unless we get a surprise blizzard, it'll be more likely that a warm spell will melt the snow and turn things into a shallow lake above the ice, and that's ATV conditions. But I don't think that's likely at all. I think we'll be just fine in our 4WD and some front-wheel drives. Time will tell.

[LindyRigga]

[Note from admin: Please read forum rules before posting again. Thank you.]

It's good to see so many pics and stories from this season! It's definitely been my best for both numbers and size. Wish I had some pics to share. I always take a camera but seldom remember to use it.

[fishontheice]

Has the fishing picked up yet i heard feb. was a slow. Lots of sluch up there??

[Steve Foss]

Welcome to HSO, fishontheice. Great to have you here.

The last week or so has been slow for many, but a fishing friend just sent me pics of a 27 and a 31 caught over the weekend, and others have been catching fish as well, so methinks things are picking back up for the last few weeks of the season, as usual. Some of the folks I talked with out on the ice yesterday hadn't caught anything, while others had.

[Lee Lane]

I was up saturday, I fished HARD!!! shallow ....deep and everywhere in between I even fished in 100 fow 20 to 30ft down....my typical bigger baits medium baits and small downsized baits and even my rod with downsized line ...I seen 3 fish all day! but it sure beat going to work.

I dealt with this pattern in march last year then things got real good for me for about a week so all the people headed to the bash could possibly be hittin er just right...also good luck to all headed up for the bash I hope to see pics of some giants to get me pumped up for my next trip up.

By the way I seen several nice fish caught near me while I was out....talk about frusteration! Atleast b-side has some good scenery for them slow days!