Ely - Babbitt Fishing Reports - Lake Conditions Too.

[Lee Lane]

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Howd you and your dad do mike? No water on the lake whatsoever here but I was a little SKETCHED driving on the ice on bluewater today, 10 inches in some spots and 2 ft in others. I bought a blazer 2 yrs ago because I get freaked driving on the ice and they are LIGHT, but on the lakes here im hitchin my wheeler for the rest of the year cuz I value my hide!

[Northlander]

Boy I sure hope nobody we know was in that fatal head on car reck up by Ely!!! Sad no matter who the people were. Prayers go out to these poor folks family. Anyone have more info on it?

[BRULEDRIFTER]

2 Killed in Head-On Crash Near Ely

Updated: Friday, 12 Mar 2010, 8:23 AM CST

Published : Friday, 12 Mar 2010, 8:23 AM CST

ELY, Minn. - Two people were killed in a head-on crash near Ely, Minnesota on Thursday after a car crossed over the center line.

According to the Minnesota State Patrol, two cars collided on Highway 1/169 west of Ely in St. Louis County around 5:30 p.m. Thursday.

According to the State Patrol report, a 57-year-old Ely man driving a Ford Taurus crossed the center line on the wet highway and crashed head-on with a Cadillac Seville driven by a 28-year-old Ely woman.

Both drivers were killed.

[Mike Stark]

well after 4 days of fishing hard...we iced only two lakers...both of them came in the last 3 hours of fishing. my dad got the big fish...28in 8.77lb. caught on a dead cisco laying on the bottom in 34fow. i got a 3.5lber on a buckshot spoon in 68fow.

here a pic of the big trout:

[Redlantern]

Had a great time at the bash. Think next year I'll come up the night before so I won't be so dang sleepy. Met a lot of nice people. Thanks for putting it on.

[maddowg1192000]

coming up to ely to help some friends get their cabin open. I was wondering if anyone is going out anywhere between wednesday and sunday, I would really like to try to catch a laker and have no idea what I am doing so would like to go out and try it with someone that knows what they are doing

[Mike Stark]

has the top layer of ice stated to candle/honeycomb yet?

[lakerunner]

Lets see if this works. Here are some pictures of the two trout that I caught out of B'side the weekend of the 7th.

My 6-yr old son holding the smaller of the two--he was afraid of the teeth on the bigger one

[Mike Stark]

nice fish lakerunner....what did the big one go?

here is one from today. its a crappy pic...but you get the point.

28in 10.03lbs PIGGY 50fow 1/4oz silver/black buckshot. it came crusing off the bottom...i kept reeling up and it hammered it! it was a fun fight...one of the best this winter.

[Hunter21]

Ice Conditions up there??? still enough for walking out??

[Cliff Wagenbach]

Very unstable on most of the area lakes!

If you try to walk out do not go alone and wear a life vest!

Cliff

[Mike Stark]

got another nice one today at noon..27.5in..8lbs..50fow..1/4oz gold swedish pimple. missed another one and had a couple other lookers. one of the lookers was on the first drop of the morning.

the ice was OK this morning. but i would do what cliff said. dont go out alone. i do feel better wearing my Arctic Armor. the ice is deteriorating fast. it has gotten noticeably thinner. be careful and check the ice often. it only takes one small bad spot to ruin your day...maybe even your life.

sorry about the cheesy swirls i dont want all of MN to know where im fishing.

[JerkinLips]

Mike Stark - I think I heard you yelling today when you caught that fish.

[shamrock7]

Pretty cool but it shows that you have been spending too much time around Foss

[Mike Stark]

jerkinlips,

i might have let out a few "yes!s" and "wohoo!s"...i didnt think i was that loud..sound really travels across the calm ice.

shamrock,

foss did teach me a lot about burntside lakers, but i would never want to spend time with him.

[Steve Foss]

foss did teach me a lot about burntside lakers, but i would never want to spend time with him.

That's OK. Put the luck of TWO Irish redheads together on the ice and I doubt there'd be a fish left in the lake.

[djb1]

I fixed your photo for you

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[Mike Stark]

ahhhh....the luck of the irish

[lakerunner]

Mike--very nice meeting you and your friend yesterday. Both yesterday's and today's fish are very nice.

I was fishing a little to the east of you yesterday--closer to the reef. I had numerous fish come in but no takers. I know that atleast 3 of the marks were lakers in that they were red bullets on my graph and chased me all over. I had 4-5 other marks that came in slower, looked, and then took off. Maybe 'eyes, whitefish??? I had the most activity around 4 pm and then around 5:30. The very interesting thing about yesterday is that I did not mark any smelt!

I noticed last night when I came off the ice, the ice at the Passi landing was starting to break-up some. Not much but still....

I had anywhere from 8 to 13" of ice where I fished.

[Mike Stark]

it was nice meeting you to lakerunner....too bad the lookers didnt want to do any biting...still fun to play cat n mouse tho. i havent marked smelt in that area for a while...dont know where they all went either...doesnt seem to be effecting the fishing tho.

[JerkinLips]

Caught my first Burntside lakers last weekend. In 2½ days of fishing, I caught 6 lakers. The biggest was 9# 12oz and the next biggest was 4# 7oz. The other 4 ranged from 14" to 17". I caught 3 of them on a "cracked" ice Swedish Pimple with Dr. Juice scent added, 2 on a slender spoon with orange reflector, and 1 on a white/silver sparkle top tube jig with Dr. Juice scent added. All fish were caught in 45 FOW jigging at about 25 feet down. No bites on my set line (cisco on the bottom). Hopefully the attached pictures work.

[Mike Stark]

nice work jerkinlips. thats a dang good way to start off catching lakers on burntside. congrats! im pretty sure i saw you off in the distance...you were the only other group i saw the two days i was out. im heading out tomorrow for what im calling my last day. dont know how long the ice will hold up. its going fast. just a little too fast.

[Wanderer]

Nice catches JerkinLips!

Out of the last several years that I've been around lake trout, I can't remember seeing so many with the tattered tails. Most in pictures this year but we have caught a couple ourselves.

[JerkinLips]

How do the lakers get tattered tails? They wouldn't possibly be brood stock, would they? Probably not since it is unlikely so many would be caught in a short period in a lake that size. The picture below is a 5½ lb rainbow I caught last spring in a trout pond that was released brood stock.

[Steve Foss]

The DNR has released brood stock lakers in Burntside.

[Mike Stark]

well today was the last day on the ice for me and man was it a good day. first fish on the ice was an 26in 8.5lber. it was a heck of a fight. the fish took about nice runs..thought i had a monster on. not too much later i missed a fish..set the hook too early. then an hour later had a fish come in. got it up to 15ft below the ice..then it hammered it...had the fish at the hole...it was in the 8-10lb range...hook came out right at the hole...after grumbling a bit about the fish getting off i notice that a flag is up...we run over to the flag only to find that whatever was on the other end managed to wrap its slef around something....i let the line hang loose for a min and the fish and/or the snag came off. drop another cisco down and not 2 minutes later flag pops again..its was spinnin FAST...but dropped it...pretty exciting 10min. then an hour later another bar comes screaming up nails my spoon....32in 10.25lb laker..all the fishing jigging came out of the same hole in 50fow. two on a 3/8oz gold buckshot and the other on a gold swedish pimple. it was a heck of a way to end the season.

[Steve Foss]

Glad you had a good final day on the ice, Mike. I was looking at the big wind gusts and thinking of you out there, but nice fish like that make wind matter not at all.

[DTro]

Beautiful fish Mike!!

Taking reservations for next year?

[Casey Sunsdahl]

Very nice lakers!

[mikesdad]

Nice fish Mike! You to jerkinlips. Great finish to what I observed to be a great year all around. The ice was perfect as ice can be perfect. The weather was good. You all caught some great fish and the numbers seemed to be more then years past. Hey dtro, you have to schedule around the old man. I think I'm just getting the handle on this LAKER thing and I look forward to next ice. Meanwhile, congrats to you all for a great laker season.