Ely - Babbitt Fishing Reports - Lake Conditions Too.

[Steve Foss]

You can use any bait you want behind a diver, but spoons outproduce minnow baits 5-1 for me trolling on Burntside.

Any med-heavy pike/musky rod will do a great job with a Jet Diver. Shorter the rod, shorter the leader. Even a 6-foot leader is plenty long to ensure good lure action. I only use clear Jet Divers because I don't consider them attractors, simply diving aids. Sturdy rod holder is a must. Lots of torque on that rod with a Jet or Dipsy Diver. Reel drag is key, too. I set the drag just stiff enough that the diver doesn't take line, but a hard strike does.

The 21.5 lber I got last year in May trolling Bside with a Jet Diver hit so hard and continued to run so fast before I could even reach the rod that I thought it was going to snap. Luckily, it was the Loomis rod. That and the drag handled matters nicely.

[caseymcq]

Thank you for the information, sir. You are a gentleman and a scholar.

[Jim Almquist]

Casey another option to look at is Torpedo Divers. They come in a couple different sizes starting at 13oz and from there they get smaller. With the Cuda (13oz) you can fish down 40' with 40' of line out. They use a Church clip to hold on to your line that you remove when you get that part of the line in the boat. The only thing we have not got down is how much side movement they have when you bend the fin to create a more outward movement.

[caseymcq]

With the Jet Divers, Dipsy Divers and/or Torpedo Divers is there a way to move them out away from the side of the boat? (Jim you may have been eluding to this when you mentioned bending the fin).

[LindyRigga]

Hey I doubt I'm the first to bring this up on fishing MN, but I couldn't find it anywhere so I thought I'd post it. Just so you all are aware, the DNR has just found Spiny Water Fleas in Burntside. These are an invasive species originally from Finland and were brought over to North America in ship ballasts. They have since populated Lake superior, and spread further to many inland lakes (mostly trout lakes) probably by fisherman. I fished Burntside a week ago and had a "glob" of them collected on my line after trolling around a bit (they get their spines snagged on fishing line and collect in a glob at knots). Spiny's eat and out-compete native zooplankton and therefore strain the flow of nutrients to higher trophic levels. Its hard to say how this will effect the lake. The main thing is pick your lines clean and dry your live wells after fishing Burntside and before fishing other lakes so we don't spread these critters faster than they will spread themselves.

[Steve Foss]

Yeah, this is the first year I've found spiny water fleas on Bside.

With the Jet Divers, Dipsy Divers and/or Torpedo Divers is there a way to move them out away from the side of the boat? (Jim you may have been eluding to this when you mentioned bending the fin).

With the Dipsy Divers you can spin a dial underneath to get them to run one direction or the other. The farther out you want them to run, the shallower their max depth.

Jet Divers are fixed piece of plastic, so I doubt there's a way to change their direction. I haven't used the torpedo divers.

I've trolled as many as three Jet Divers off one boat with no tangle issues. I like Jet Divers over Dipsies because they are far lighter, and because if you get a bigger fish and have to stop the boat, the Jet Divers float to the top so you don't have to reel in lines like you do with Dipsies.

[Jim Almquist]

The Torpedo Divers have a fin that can be bent and is suppose to give you Torpedo movement similar to a dipsy with less resistance but from what I have seen there just is not as much movement as I would like. Today on Superior I used the Cuda's and the Muskie and twice I had problems when we caught a fish so I ended up taking off the Muskie's and only used the Cuda's and used my size 0 dispys on the outside. We ended up with 1 King,1 Coho, 1 walleye and 2 Lakers and released what I think was a small Brown. The King was 25 1/2" and a great fight for my brother.

[JBMasterAngler]

It doesn't surprise me one bit that spiny water flea made it to burntside, I'm actually surprised they're not in vermilion yet (or are they?) I'm surprised they'd last in burntside though, you'd think the smelt would prevent them from getting too numerous.

Anyway, since I only have 1 day to fish burntside. Which would be the best access for me to start and be able to cover as much of the lake as possible? My map shows 5 accesses, are there really that many?

[Great Outdoors]

Yes, there are five access points.

[Steve Foss]

The public access off Van Vac Road (Cty. 404) is centrally located along the south shore, and you'll be in laker water within 200 yards of the landing. In fact, you can spend a whole day trolling within sight of that landing with lots of success.

The western access off Wolf Lake Road isn't close to prime summer laker water, though it's great in winter. The Burntside Lodge landing can be busy because it's right at Bside Lodge, though it's only about a mile east of Van Vac landing. The North Arm landing is steep and gravel, not paved, and the Passi Road landing is 15-20 minutes drive time north/east from Ely, with a REALLY steep uphill along part of Passi Road.

[BRULEDRIFTER]

B-Side God's were not kind to my vert. jigging yesterday morning!

Curse that effin' lake!

[caseymcq]

... I'm surprised they'd last in burntside though, you'd think the smelt would prevent them from getting too numerous...

From what I have read they are tough for smaller fish to swallow.

[Jayspade]

Farmer, the lake is down a bit from last year alot of new vegitation groth on the weed beds been a bit wet lately with hot and humid days. fishing.... is a bit slow latly I believe its due to the hevy swing in the wether. if you have any other ?s feel free to emain me @ [email protected]

GOOD LUCK, JAY

[lakerunner]

All of my rods are 8'6" medium action downrigger rods. They double pretty well as dispsy rods but tend to be a little soft. However, if you can't afford to have a whole set of downrigger rods and another for pulling dispsies, then they will work just fine. I haven't tried out jet divers yet so I don't know how they will work on them.

[Steve Foss]

All of my rods are 8'6" medium action downrigger rods. They double pretty well as dispsy rods but tend to be a little soft. However, if you can't afford to have a whole set of downrigger rods and another for pulling dispsies, then they will work just fine. I haven't tried out jet divers yet so I don't know how they will work on them.

Pat, the Jet Divers don't load the rods quite as heavy as the Dipsies.

[JBMasterAngler]

Well, I finally hit burntside for the 1st time on tuesday. Got off to a late start and didn't get there until about 9. Kind've an odd ordeal happened to me when I put the boat in the water...it's bright and sunny, not a gray cloud in the sky. What does it do? It starts raining...ALOT! So I sit and wait in my truck for about 5 minutes. Come back down to the launch to see a big bright rainbow, and it was sprouting out from the nearest island to the left. Was a really neat sight, really wish I would've had a camera

Anyway, I got out and started trolling right out from the launch, went through the channel and up and along the islands. Was in anywhere from 50 to 120 ft, with my bait from 30 to 50 ft down. Nothing! Didn't even mark anything except for a couple small pods of smelt. I tried trolling again later in the day from the northshore down, over the 120 ft hole back to the islands with no luck as well. Used cleo's and kamloops spoons in various colors.

The wind was brutal, so I didn't get to fish the spots I wanted to for bass. My go to lure was a black/yellow/red mepps spinner, but unfortunately I was bit off by a pike and the bass fishing (which was already slow) went south from there. I caught 15 small bass, and 3 tiny rock bass. The layout of the lake is an exact carbon copy of a lake I know very well in grand marais, so I know the potential is there for numbers and size. So, just like my lack of success on vermilion, I'm blaming this on time of year. I loved bein out on this lake, but I think a different month would do wonders

[ben h]

just returned from a week on b side. caught several lakers on the trip. biggest was a 13.5 pounder but had maybe half a dozen or so fish in the 5 lb range and half a dozen smaller ones. did well on the walleye, bass, and northern also. beautiful weather and beautiful scenery already ready to go back.

[Steve Foss]

Thanks for the report, Ben!

[harvey lee]

Burntside is one beautiful lake for scenery and fishing.

[Mike Stark]

ben h you got give some details with a report like that!...thats a very good week on burntside. nice work. i trolled around this afternoon. lots of fish on the graph but no takers.

[Wanderer]

just returned from a week on b side. caught several lakers on the trip. biggest was a 13.5 pounder but had maybe half a dozen or so fish in the 5 lb range and half a dozen smaller ones. did well on the walleye, bass, and northern also. beautiful weather and beautiful scenery already ready to go back.

I agree. A great week!

I presume you were running your Dad's favorite areas?

[Steve Foss]

Ben, it was good to see you had good success.

Supply as much or as little detail as you want to. We always like to see tactics/techniques/lures and such. But even if you don't puke up a bunch of details, it's good to have other folks posting about success. Burntside has been an open book this summer.

[ben h]

ben h you got give some details with a report like that!...thats a very good week on burntside. nice work. i trolled around this afternoon. lots of fish on the graph but no takers.

found the walleye after sundown in about 12-20 fow slow,slow,slow trolling a leach on a spinner. didnt seem to matter color of spinner, but it didnt start till late each night. the lakers took a little more work, still picked some up in 65 fow but mostly closer to 90-100 fow. just trolled bright shiny spoons no rapalas or minnow lure just shiny spoons, even cleaned em up to get em extra shiny

[Mike Stark]

thanks ben.

[ben h]

? for anyone who can help

i dont have riggers for the lakers so i often just troll with several hundred feet of steel line and a spoon.

its hard to find steel line anymore

does anyone know how well copper line works as i can find copper line easily and ive heard of the old timers using copper line.

or does anyone know somewhere that carries steel line anymore

cabelas doesnt even show it online and i have just recieved puzzled looks at gander

[Jim Almquist]

It is still around Ben because the guys on Lake Michigan still use it. If you do a search for Mason steel line you should be able to find it.

[Great Outdoors]

We handle both stainless steel and copper line, just sold the last spools a few days ago.

Will re order several more tomorrow.

[ben h]

great outdoors where are you located and could you email me when you get some in and what the price is

i am looking for single strand wire and would like at least a 450' spool, seems like most come in either 300' or 600 ft'

bengoodthx@yahoo

[Great Outdoors]

Will have to look for single strand, as we had the wire line in 7 strand and 600 foot spools.

I'll let you know what I find.

[ben h]

how does the multistrand stuff work for trolling directly with a spoon?

i dont have any experience with it. i am just using the equiptment that is in the cabin now, its the same stuff thats been used for the last 50 years, so i am sure there is a better way to do it, i just dont know what it is