Ely - Babbitt Fishing Reports - Lake Conditions Too.

[Steve Foss]

Hunter21, do you have downriggers, dipsy divers or any other types of diving aids for trolling?

[Hunter21]

I went up on Saturday (6/19) Was Graphing the fish at about 35-45 fow had a dipsy diver down about 40fow tried spoon and a few raps. Then my Graph stopped working and that was that.. I tried around blueberry island. Beautiful lake but crappy day to go. Im gonna have to buy down riggers.

[Mike Stark]

went out for fun today..fished from noon-4:30..ended up with 3 in the boat...2pm-4pm was when the fish were caught. 4lb, 2lb, and 1lb. around 60ft down over 75-120fow. using led-core. little cleo 1/3oz clown pattern.

[Casey Sunsdahl]

Sounds fun! way to go... I am assuming a full core for 60'?

[Mike Stark]

and then some....400ft....its a good work out reeling in 400ft of leadcore

[Casey Sunsdahl]

i might go up and try it thursday get the riggers ready for the nipigon trip

[Steve Foss]

Well, finally shook the dust off the boat! Sorry I haven't been posting reports. But, um, you've actually gotta FISH before you can post reports, and I've been so busy with other stuff that I haven't fished since the opener. That's both good and bad, of course.

Anyway spent about 8:30 to 1 p.m. trolling Bside today. Gorgeous day to be on the water. Temps in the 60s-70s, light breeze, surface temps about 65 degrees.

Plus, just put a very nice Easy Troller drop-down trolling plate on the 90 Hp Merc, which wouldn't troll down below 3.1 mph before. Now she'll go as slow as I want her!

Went 4 for 5, with the miss getting off just at boatside (it was going back anyway). No monsters. Coupla 1.5 pound dinks, couple about 4 or 5 lbs (one came home for supper), and one about 8. One of the medium-sized ones was fin clipped, the others were not. All came on spoons. Didn't hit the North Arm. Just stayed in the two main bays. Trolling 2.3 to 2.7 mph (GPS), rigger varying from 30 to 60 feet down over 45 to 100 FOW. One fish came over deep water, the other four from 50-65. Gold/orange large Krocodile spoon, rainbow trout pattern Finn spoon and silver/gold Sutton were the three I went with, and all got bit. Considering the action/color range among them, it was probably just one of those days the trout were hungry rather than picky. Saw very few high flyers on the graph. Almost everything was oriented to bottom structure, though they were perfectly happy to come up for the lures today.

Fair amount of boat traffic for a Wednesday but only saw one other laker boat. Watched them land a nice one, too.

[Steve Foss]

Addendum: Instead of eating fresh laker, we cleaned it, put it in the freezer and grabbed up a bunch of crawlers and leeches and fished this evening again on Bside.

We hit a large mid-lake reef that tops out about 10 feet surrounded by much deeper water, anchoring upwind and drifting slip bobbers up the breaks and onto the reef tops. Had a nice mix of smallies, pike and walleyes, with about 12 fish total in the boat. Of the 'eyes, the biggest was a 4.7 lb 22.5 incher. I'll post a pic if my wife can extract it from a vid she took. Biggest smallie went 4, but shook the hook just before I lipped him.

Very nice evening. Not as nice as morning, since it clouded over and a breeze came up pretty stiffly out of the southeast, but it beats a poke in the eye with a pointed stick. And tomorrow's supper will be fresh walleye and pike fingers.

[lakerunner]

Nice job Steve!

[Mike Stark]

you had to go and out do me, didnt ya foss.. i just noticed your report today. nice job. thats a dang good day on b-side.

[Steve Foss]

Thanks, Mike. I kinda wanted to go the rest of the day until sundown for lakers and see if I could break my PB, but it wasn't to be. Those pike fingers (my wife ate the walleye) were pretty darn good for supper yesterday, I must admit.

Heck, probably I wouldn't have landed a laker the rest of the day. We all know how fickle they can be.

[Steve Foss]

Wanderer and I fished Bside today from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Had five hooked, landed four. Largest was a five, and the other three were 1.5 lb eaters. Lost about an 8-9 a few feet from the boat.

Really nice day to be on the water. Hit all the usual spots from the North Arm to the Dead River to Van Vac Bay and Waters and Dollar island areas. Blueberry, Miller/Lockhart, etc. Saw fish in all locations, hooked a fish or so in all locations. Riggers were from 35 to 90 feet down over 50 to 120 FOW. Nothing but spoons fished from 2.3 to 2.8 mph. Used Suttons, Williams, Finn, Willow Tail and a couple others in various patterns. No pattern really outfished the other.

Tons of boat traffic for Bside, which isn't that surprising on such a gorgeous Saturday in early July. Only saw three other laker boats though. Mostly it was a ton of pleasure cruises going on. Well, lots of ways to have a pleasure cruise.

And for supper tonight we had a combo of fresh batter fried laker and grilled laker with a wonderful dill sauce prepared by a fantastic chef from South Dakota. Thanks Dee! Mmmmmmmmm, goooooood.

[Redlantern]

Hey Steve, how about putting that dill sauce recipe in the cooking forum? Dill really goes well with fish. I'd like to try it in a sauce.

[Steve Foss]

I'd be happy to, if I can pry it out of the chef.

[Wanderer]

We'll keep after it if she doesn't email Lisa. What am I saying? I NEED that recipe for fish! It didn't look real complicated, which is a plus for a guy like me.

Thanks again for the day on B-side Steve. It's always time well spent.

If your bottle of olive oil wasn't on your step when you got home today I would check the neighbor's place.

[Jim Almquist]

Steve and Wanderer

The recipe we like a lot is the one the Tom Linderholm's chef made up but we have made Trout without the StoveTop stuffing.

1 cup Mayo

1 tsp dill

The zest and the juice of 1 lemon

We put it under and over the trout/salmon

If you go with the original recipe you would put the StoveTop over the top but we like it just as well without.

[Steve Foss]

Thanks, Tracy. It was there on the step. Neighbor didn't even pee in it.

Jim, that sounds like a good one.

[lakerunner]

Steve--have you run that spoon that we tried out on Superior? I can't remember the name of it but you had picked it up cheap and when we ran it, it had a really nice slow wobble action.

[Wanderer]

So I asked Dee to jot down the recipe before she left for South Dakota today and by God she did.

1 Shallot or 1/4 cup red onion chopped fine

2 Tbsp butter

1 Cup dry white wine

1 Cup cream

1/2 Cup fresh dill chopped

Salt

Pepper

Onion powder

Garlic powder

1/4 tsp chicken bullion (optional)

Saute shallot and butter over medium heat until soft.

Add 1 cup dry white wine and continue cooking over medium heat until reduced by half.

Add cream, dill and seasonings to taste and cook over medium low heat until it thickens, stirring frequently.

We ladled the sauce over the trout fillets after they were grilled over wood charcoal and brushed with olive oil while cooking. The two fillets were from about a 5 pounder and there was plenty of sauce for all of it since she made a double batch.

Pardon me while I go get a napkin.

P.S. I'd like to say Lisa's tarter sauce was pretty choice also.

[Steve Foss]

Ahhhhhh, thank you, my friend.

Now I've just gotta get out and nab a few more tasty char type fishies for the pan. Mama's so fixated on walleye that I don't know if I'll be able to manage it any time soon.

As for Lisa's "tartar" sauce, there's nothing tartar about Dijon mustard mixed with light sour cream. But it DOESN'T SUCK, no matter what you call it.

Sauces are good, but if you don't catch the fish to put the sauces on, you're putting those sauces on leaves and twigs. Really, who likes salad?

[Jim Almquist]

That recipe sounds great! I copied that one down for the cookbook.

[Redlantern]

Thanks for sharing. It looks like it'll be great.

[knoppers]

now I know why I no longer go to the recipe thread. thanks for the info, I will try that, if I can stop drewling on my keyboard.

[Steve Foss]

Had a husband/wife team out on Bside for the morning today. Very different than last time out. Rain all morning long, lots of fish on the graph. We had three hard smacks on the downriggers, but only one released and nothing got hooked. Well, the husband/wife got hooked on laker fishing and Burntside.

Of course, the sun came out 15 minutes after I dropped them off on the dock. Funny how that works.

All three hits came on a blaze orange Doctor spoon reversed. The other two rods didn't get bit all morning, even though I changed out lures often.

We'll see how it goes next time. Might even try some cowbells on one rod.

[Steve Foss]

This morning over four hours with two rods we caught two lakers. They were the only fish that hit. Both eaters, one with clipped fin, one without. Small lures were the key. The fish were not at all aggressive. My guess is because it was a bluebird day right after the rain system moved through yesterday.

All the larger spoons were ignored. One came on a small, thin, gold hammered Sutton spoon, the other on a small hammered silver/green Finn spoon. Both over 75 FOW.

[leech~~]

Steve, how come so many pic's of winter fish on this post but hardly any during the summer season!

[Steve Foss]

I just got tired of showing off.

[Mike Stark]

foss.....i see you got a big banner ad at the top of the page.....looks good!

[Steve Foss]

Thanks Mike. Got a new boat today, too. It's the one you saw me with when you drove by this afternoon.

[fishgutz77]

Steve,

let's get a look at the new ride so I can tell if ya troll by.