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Ely - Babbitt Fishing Reports - Lake Conditions Too.


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Yeah the camera was a dead giveaway. I don't think you noticed me filming you with the Go Pro while you had taken a pic of me at the same time, touchey. I thought you looked familiar and I spoke with a friend about the adventure and we agreed that we thought it was you being the avatar you have on the forums. So, went back to look at the footage, and lone behold its you. Thanks for the info on the trails by the way. I hope to back over there when its not so dam wet. Hope to run into you again.

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I promised to post so here goes...

We pretty much hammered the walleye in Birch last week. Caught them as shallow as 2-ft and as deep as 25-ft. When we arrived on Monday the 20th water temps were 47 - although substantially warmer near the Stony inlet. When we left on Saturday the 25th the water temps were pushing 60.

Most of the fish were 15-18 inches, altough we had a 23 and a 29 - largest I ever caught from Birch. Both went back.

Hit a 20-inch smallie and a 12-inch crappie too.

We tried to hit the northern bays for crappies but couldn't find the mother load. Although the Timber Bay guy said that one cabin came in with 20.

Jig and minnow was the ticket. Bought rainbows, shiners and fatheads. If I had to do over again, I would buy just fats. The others were twice as much and I didn't notice much of a difference fishing them on a jig.

Good fishing!

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Thanks for that report CJromano,

We'll be up there for the next few days chasing anything we can put in the net. Hoping to get a decent pike and 'eye bite, and would love to track down some crappies. I've been doing my homework and will report back as well. Hopefully the weather cooperates a bit for us.

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Trolling a crawler harness produced today in the dark water 5-15 fow they are in small schools. Trolling big crankbaits at dusk in the mud/sand flats in 10fow is producing 25-32 inchers!

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Hi everyone, first post here. We are heading to Birch this Saturday. It will be the first time camping/fishing there. Can any of you experts suggest where we might start? I assume the fish will be shallow. We are camping at the forest service site. Thanks. Mark

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Thanks for that report CJromano,

We'll be up there for the next few days chasing anything we can put in the net. Hoping to get a decent pike and 'eye bite, and would love to track down some crappies. I've been doing my homework and will report back as well. Hopefully the weather cooperates a bit for us.

Wanted to provide a follow-up report for all interested. In a word...tough. Got to the campground on Friday with a huge wind coming off the lake from the SW. Got set-up just before the rains came. Managed to dodge a couple other downpours and got out for a couple hours, but nothing to show for it. With the weather being so bad, we stayed close to the campground, fishing the wind blown north shoreline towards the S. Kawish.

Awoke Saturday to cold, howling winds and drizzle. Got out for a couple hours in the AM, but eventually got blown off the lake by weather. Once again, fished the northern shoreline towards and past Kloubochar Bay, casting to shallow water and humps, jigging and trolling depths of 10' - 18'. Tried speeds of .5 to 1.1 with sticks, crawler harnesses and spinners with minnows with no luck.

We were confined to shore most of the afternoon due to weather. It seemed to let up in the late afternoon, so I ventured out again. Once past the point it was evident that the weather was not going to cooperate. Huge wind out of the NE pounded the boat, with stinging rain/drizzle to boot. Tried the windward shoreline and concentrated on a palisade, but didn't last more than an hour. Hauled to the northern shore to escape the pounding and trolled back to camp. Was going to duck into a bay and try for some crappie but I couldn't feel my hands so I headed to the campfire.

Sunday saw calmer weather so we were able to hit it pretty hard with the time we had left. Actually made it to the river inlets that we wanted to hit initially and threw everything we had at 'em for 5+ hours...nothing. Finally, 15 minutes from the dock I decided to go back to basics and tie on a crawler again...Boom...managed a decent pike that was promptly put on ice and enjoyed that night.

Disappointed in the fishing and weather, but we actually had a great time. Can't do anything about Mother Nature, so we made the most of it. We'll hit it a few more times this year and see if we can do better.

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Better luck the weather next time titelines. Can't control that.

This weekend has been pretty nice so far. The water temps are up maybe another 5 degrees from Memorial weekend in the places I've been. This weekend the fish haven't been as ready to jump on a moving bait so we've slowed down and spent more time bobber fishing. We're still finding the fish shallow on various lakes though. Mostly males for walleyes and bass. We did find some panfish in the shallows of dark stained water, like 2-3 feet. Not fast and furious action but enough to keep the interest up.

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  • 2 weeks later...

just curious if anyone has been out int he area, not looking for spots, just general bite info, depths, bait types for walters and panfish; staying on White Iron for a week starting this coming saturday.

Any help is appreciated.

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  • 2 months later...

Wow, going on 2 months for us since we've been to Ely. The summers just keep getting busier it seems.

Labor Day weekend really did seem like the end of summer - nice cold front. crazy

We saw surface temps in the low to mid 70's on Burntside and Miners this past weekend. We trolled for lakers on Saturday for just a short time, like maybe an hour, and just marked bottom huggers. Deja Vu from the last time I trolled them around the 4th of July during the spiny water flea outbreak and had poor luck. The word around town was the laker bite was off again so we just headed up to Twin to snag a few crappies. Nothing of any notable size but the girls got to put some fish in the boat and thats what we went there for. We were chased off the lake by the rain in the early evening.

Sunday we braved the cool breeze and off and on showers to check out Miners for our first time. Interesting lake. I've fished the Crosby/Ironton pits many times so I was pretty comfortable navigating and knew what I wanted to find. We didn't spend time on the trout since my daughter is way more into catching anything than patiently waiting for something. Plus I wanted to check the place out. We kept moving and basically each alternated between a panfish rod and a light bass set up - her with a Rapala and me with a jig and spinner bait.

NO problem catching sunnies and bass. Size was a problem though. We caught a gazillion bass up to 10 inches, 12s and 13s were nice. The sunnies were just on the small side of keepers but we did take a few. I did get a couple decent bass though - one large mouth about 16 inches and the other about 18 1/2. One on a jig and one on a spinner bait. The bass were hugging the timber and the sunnies were on a rare weedy flat. When I say hugging the timber, we were IN the timber and vertical jigging.

Overall it was a nice lake to take someone who just wants to catch fish and doesn't care about size. I'm confident under better conditions and with some knowledge of the lake, we could do much better, but that'll be another trip.

C/O Williams met us at the landing and checked our livewell, licenses and PFDs. Nice guy.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention to anyone that hasn't heard or been up to Ely for awhile - 169 is being repaved. There's a sign at HWY 21 leading to Embarrass. The sign just says "Rough road to Ely, take HWY 21" not too far before the turn off. Advice: Take it, especially if you're hauling a trailer.

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  • 3 months later...

Was thinking about trying birch this weekend wondering if anybody knows how much ice is out there and how atv travel is with all the snow we got? Usually get on the lake at boat landing in babbit. Thanks

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  • 3 weeks later...

Anybody been on Birch Lake lately? Never ended up going that weekend but still curious how ice conditions are? I would think this brutal cold snap would harden up the slush and hopefully be able to drive soon if theres a road plowed. thanx

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  • 5 months later...

Any results from the Walleye Whamma? I drove over to the boat landing to see a leaderboard but nothing. So,I asked a lady that was an official and got a cold reply saying she can't disclose any info. W T F lady, just wanted to see some numbers and hear some stories. Lighten up people its a local contest not the FLW!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Greetings all. Coming up to Fall Lake on Saturday for a few days. Have never fished it before, seeking smallies and walleyes. Can anyone point me in the right direction in terms of depth/lures/rigs?

Thanks in advance.

DB

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  • 1 month later...

Fishing the White Iron, Farm, Garden chain the past two days. Surface temps are around 68-69.

Having a tough time marking many fish so I put the graph on split zoom and sure enough, they're laying tight to the bottom in 16-20 ft. We've caught a lot fish but not much for quality. Seems to be the same story for others as well.

I've fished from 3 feet to 30 feet with several different live and artificial baits. The best producer has been an 1/8 oz jig with 1-2 inches of crawler to actually hook fish. The best plastic has been a 2 inch paddle tail shad on the same jig head. 1/2 mile/hr seems to be the preferred speed.

Anyone finding some heavier fish? Just curious if you are. Rumor has it the bite is going good now but people aren't talking about size so it makes me wonder if they're getting the same stuff we are or we just need to work different depths more or maybe change lakes...

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Some...

I didn't work cranks a lot but did hit my favorite trolling run with one deep and one shallow with a planer board. Casting just produced a few hammer handles.

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  • 1 year later...

Hey, gang.

I'm heading up to Shagawa for the 4th of July. I've fished it a handful of times for walleye in the winter and usually had some decent luck on smaller fish. Still a helluva time, though.

Anyhow, just wondering if anyone out there fishes it much midsummer. I'm sure they bite won't be super hot around the 4th of July, but I just wanted to get a read on what others think. I'll be fishing for them regardless.

Thanks!

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  • 1 year later...

You can give smittys on snowbank a call  and they will give you a report on ice conditions on snowbank no idea on Burnside haven't talked with anyone about ice on the lake may not even fish it this year getting pretty crowded past couple of years 

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Anyone have a ice report for Pelican Lake. I would like to get out there and try a few spots. I am sure this cold weather will make a good amount of ice 

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  • 5 months later...
  • 9 months later...

We had an incredible trip last year in the BWCA. Smallmouth action was the best I've seen it. The best that time of year were poppers, jerk baits, and wacky worms. Here's a video I put together of the trip!

 

 

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  • 2 months later...

Did your clothes get smoky today @chaffmj?  That prescribed burn on the west side of the North Arm Narrows made one heckuva smoke screen!

 

Did a 24 hour turn and burn to get some lodging back on my property and decided to yak the Burnside River from (almost) B side to Shags.  When we got out on Shags I turned around and saw the first big plumes.  I instantly thought about you and your house!

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23 hours ago, Wanderer said:

Did your clothes get smoky today @chaffmj?  That prescribed burn on the west side of the North Arm Narrows made one heckuva smoke screen!

 

Did a 24 hour turn and burn to get some lodging back on my property and decided to yak the Burnside River from (almost) B side to Shags.  When we got out on Shags I turned around and saw the first big plumes.  I instantly thought about you and your house!

 

Thanks for thinking of me cough, cough, cough. Actually I wasn't home yesterday. From what your saying I should have waited to smoke that laker on Sunday instead of Saturday.  ? 

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