Ely - Babbitt Fishing Reports - Lake Conditions Too.

[Great Outdoors]

Nice fish Mike, how much ice???

[Mike Stark]

thanks guys. it was darn good day on the ice. iv never had that many big fish on the line at burntside. it seemed like that was all that was swimming around down there. dtro, there is no book for reservations...not yet anyway

the wind wasnt bad at all with the arctic armor on...but your back to the wind with the hood up and your good to go. that stuff is warm! and it floats!

G.O.,

there was still 12-16in of ice where i was but the top layer is starting to go and the bottom is rotting away as well...ice comes up in chunks instead of shavings...by the time we left you could sink the axe down a couple of inches with one swing. dark spots were starting to show up all over the lake as well. i would not have wanted to be out there alone. my friend was wearing a PFD and i had a 60ft rope tied around my waist...it was a little overboard but better safe than sorry with late ice.

[lakerunner]

Awesome fishing Mike!!!

[Mike Stark]

only got one little 1lb laker today. my friend missed a BIG one. she just didnt set the hook. it was still a fun day on the ice.

[IcecoldMN]

Any reports with this warm weather?

[Steve Foss]

I wish! I've been balls to the wall on a dozen projects and haven't had a chance to get the boat in the water. Looks like I'll be stymied until the first week of June at this rate.

[Great Outdoors]

The water on the surface is warming up rapidly, and bass are moving toward the shorelines.

Still cold down a few feet, will have a more accurate temp report on Saturday.

[FISHINGFARMER]

Big Lake northwest of Ely:

Was wondering if anyone has been up to the lake since opener started? We are finally coming up in 2 weeks, has been many years since we have had a chance to come north to fish. Way to long, having major withdrawl symptoms

What is the lake level like? We have been watching and hearing you fellows are really dry up there this spring. Good luck in getting that much needed rain.

Thanks for any info

Farmer

[cashcrews]

Surface temp was 48-49 on Sunday 5/16. Trolled spoons and stickbaits a couple hours without a hit.

[Casaloma]

Will be at the Cabin on EN#2 for the week of the 22nd -30th. We plan on spending a couple of days on Burntside. My initial thought was to troll long line diving plugs dow to 25' or so around the islands, reefs, points & suitable shoreline.

Any ideas on where the eyes might be hanging? Is my plan rubbish? What would you be doing? I figure I may be hitting both trout & eye areas with this approach.

GO- Will you be in store next week? Will stop by for our bait n' tackle needs.

Thanks, -CLoma

[Great Outdoors]

Yes, I'll be in the store daily, until about noon.

Burntside surface temps were about63-65 yesterday, but a good wind will drop that down about 6-8 degrees, maybe more.

[bigspike]

Has anyone been fishing Shagawa Lake? If so what has been working for you?

This time of the year for me large leeches and split shot on the flats and

just inside olson's bay works great for me the past 10 years.

Happy Fishing To All

[crawler harness]

I talked to 3 guys today and they have been doing pretty good on the eyes. One guy is using a lindy rig sinker with a spinner and a rainbow minnow and the other guys are using a lindy rig with a leech, with equal success rates. Yesterday they kept their 18. They are having success early in the morning, said it kinda shutsdown after 10, and then it picks back up again around 6 0r 7 at night and caught fish till 11 pm. They were all nice fish all between 15-19 inches. They are trolling along Olson's bay and just headed east along the shoreline and picking them up.

Good luck

[badgerjt]

Crawler Harness thanks for the report, I will be making my annual trip up to Shagawa in one week. Good to hear some nice fish are being caught.

[crawler harness]

No problem,

I was out lastnight and got my 6 in about 20 minutes. I was using a bobber and a leech on a plain hook in about 6 feet of water. They started biting about 8pm. It was fast and furious

[ben h]

anyone know current surface temps for bside? or have some reports?

[Great Outdoors]

They were about 63-65 degrees on the surface two days ago. It still in the mid to low 50's in about 10 FOW.

[ben h]

anyone been laker hunting?

[FISHINGFARMER]

Wife and I are getting excited! should be in the Ely area by the end of next week. Any latest info. on Big lake action would be greatly appreciated!

Thank You!

Farmer & Family

[iceranger792]

Crawler harness you are the man! Right at 8pm we started gettin em... We were usin jigs w/ leeches draggin em on the bottom. A Monster Pike grabbed on to one as we were reelin it in and he put up quite the battle trying to get that eye but in the end we won that fight! Thanks for the info you made 3 peoples day!!! We definitely owe you one

[crawler harness]

Ice ranger,

glad to hear you got into some fish. My wife's family is up for the weekend and I took them out and got into some of the eyes aswell. I have noticed though the bite lasts for about an hour from 8-9, I have not had much action after 9. Your right about starting at 8pm. It's like clock work. All friday afternoon it was overcast skies so I figured they would have started biting sooner than that, but I didn't get the first bite till 8.

Once again glad you guys got into some fish.

[tjo]

How have the walleye been cooperating this week?

tjo

[ben h]

spent a week on burntside

found the best walleye fishing ive hit in the 5 years ive been going to burntside. a leech and a plain hook in about 12 fow and we landed plenty of 18-20" fish also picked up quite a few nice smallies. Had some good laker fishing trolling in 40-60 fow biggest i landed was a nice 5lb fish but i did have one rip the entire hook off of my spoon after about 5 min.

bad part was i kept trolling with that spoon for about 45 min before i reeled in to find it hookless

[crawler harness]

It has slowed down a bit this week. We had a mayfly hatch and the weather has not been great either (rain everyday since tuesday) and cooler temps. A buddy of mine went out this morning between rain showers and picked up a couple eyes using a lindy rig with a leech in 10-12ft.

[Wanderer]

Dang it, I hate it when that happens! Well, O.K., it hasn't happened to me, but I would hate it.

Thanks for the report and good job on the fishing. I am patiently waiting for the week of July 4th when I finally get to spend serious time on the water up there. I hope I see some of what you saw.

[Great Outdoors]

Burntside water temps this afternoon: Surface 63-64 degrees; 12 feet down 62-63 degrees; 32-48 feet down 50 degrees; hit 49 degrees at 49-50 feet down and ran out of cable.

Still cold.

[fishgutz77]

Thanks for the report GO.

I'm waiting just a bit longer for the old girl to warm up a bit more.

[Hunter21]

First time fishing Burnt, any tips for lakers? Not looking for your honey hole just gonna go out and fish..

[knoppers]

got small laker downriggin at 40 feet, shad rap went down another 8 feet or so.

[knoppers]

hunter21, north arm is were I was fishing