Ely - Babbitt Fishing Reports - Lake Conditions Too.

[Mike Stark]

we just got off burntside. 17-24in of ice. driving was a little tough. lots of snow...but doable. never got stuck in my 4x4 explorer. the snowbanks of the roads will be an issue. they are going to freeze tonight and turn into barricades...getting through and around them might get tough.

what do folks think is going to happen to the conditions of the lake when all this wet snow freezes?

tonkapat where are you finding 13in?

[Mike Stark]

by the way...GO is right...we when back to a spot we fished yesterday and there was about and inch of standing water over the holes....most holes we drilled today flooded right away.

[Mike Stark]

got skunked today...one looker.

hopefully it will stop snowing....we get anymore snow it might be a snowmobiles only club.

[Steve Foss]

Allright guys . . . apparently it was a decent weekend on B-side. Well, a buddy and I were up there and POUNDED it from about noon Friday until noon Sunday. We came in at Van Vac, fished/camped on the west side of Pike Island. We also fished near the cove on State Island, and near the "end of the road" on the NW corner of Waters. Additionally, we fished the west side of the "entrance" to the north arm, just NW of the NW corner of State. We concentrated on 45-65 FOW, in areas with moderate to steep bottoms. We tried expanding our depth range to include everything from 25-75 FOW. We ran tip-ups with dead smelt, dead ciscoes, and sucker minnows, usually about 20' from the bottom, but sometimes right near the bottom. We jigged white tubes, airplanes, slender spoons, swedish pimples, beetle-jigs with cut bait, and a few more things. We ran jigs with and without bait (minnow pieces, heads, cut strips, etc.). We tried tiny teardrops with waxies. We tried letting things just sit. We tried aggressive jigging. Short, jerky motion. Huge sweeping motions. We never had a hit. At all. What the heck were we doing wrong? We're kinda newbies, certainly to B-side, but it's the only place I've EVER been skunked chasing lakers. Please help give me some hope! Nice to see that you guys are getting some action up there (I'm jealous)! Thanks in advance for any help.

[Mike Stark]

it would be no problem any other week foss...but my parents are up and the only way we can get around in by 4x4's. i think the snow has stopped so im not too worried...it can be done has of this afternoon.

will the freeze make things better or worse???

[Steve Foss]

Yeah, I knew you were talking about your folks.

To answer your question, I think it'll make things better. The snow is so full of water that it could even freeze solid enough to support trucks over the next several days. If not trucks, it at least oughta support sleds/ATVs. And it won't offer much insulation for the ice. We may even dodge widespread slush problems, since there's 16-20 inches of hard clear ice over most of the places I've been fishing.

And if slush does come along, with the snow being so wet, and the cold about to clamp down, likely it'll all tighten right back up in a week.

[Gunflint Guy]

I am heading to Ely on Friday morning...I'll have to check in Thursday to see if the driving conditions have changed due the wet snow freezing.

[Mike Stark]

good news...thats kinda what i was thinking...we are going out tomorrow..so ill find out either way.

[Steve Foss]

It'll take a few days for -15 to turn that snow really hard. Good luck out there tomorrow. Maybe take the parentals to some of the proven spots to get them on fish?

[Mike Stark]

unfortunately those spots are not producing as much as i would like......want to email me some of your gps cords???

[Steve Foss]

Crickets chirping.

[Mike Stark]

we'll keep plugging away....

[Steve Foss]

Keep persistently pounding those proven spots and you should come up with something. Just your folks' bad luck it was a big weather system that landed smack dab across their days up here.

[Mike Stark]

yep....not the best timing...they will turn on...

[Mike Stark]

but as you know...a day on the ice is better than most..especially when its with the folks.

[troutned]

Originally Posted By: troutned

Allright guys . . . apparently it was a decent weekend on B-side. Well, a buddy and I were up there and POUNDED it from about noon Friday until noon Sunday. We came in at Van Vac, fished/camped on the west side of Pike Island. We also fished near the cove on State Island, and near the "end of the road" on the NW corner of Waters. Additionally, we fished the west side of the "entrance" to the north arm, just NW of the NW corner of State. We concentrated on 45-65 FOW, in areas with moderate to steep bottoms. We tried expanding our depth range to include everything from 25-75 FOW. We ran tip-ups with dead smelt, dead ciscoes, and sucker minnows, usually about 20' from the bottom, but sometimes right near the bottom. We jigged white tubes, airplanes, slender spoons, swedish pimples, beetle-jigs with cut bait, and a few more things. We ran jigs with and without bait (minnow pieces, heads, cut strips, etc.). We tried tiny teardrops with waxies. We tried letting things just sit. We tried aggressive jigging. Short, jerky motion. Huge sweeping motions. We never had a hit. At all. What the heck were we doing wrong? We're kinda newbies, certainly to B-side, but it's the only place I've EVER been skunked chasing lakers. Please help give me some hope! Nice to see that you guys are getting some action up there (I'm jealous)! Thanks in advance for any help.

Yep, some good proven spots, tactics and lures in there.

I will add that Friday and Saturday were not good days. One laker between three guys on Friday and three lakers between three guys on Saturday. And those Saturday fish took a lot of work and finesse.

Only thing you didn't say is whether you saw any fish on the electronics. Did you have electronics? When the trout are active and aggressive, electronics don't help much because they just come in and slam it. When you've gotta tease them into biting, which happens a lot on Burntside, you really need electronics. To see if there's even fish there in the first place, obviously, and then to see how they are reacting to what you are doing.

I expect to be skunked now and then on Burntside. It's a rare day indeed that I don't at least see a handful of chasers on the electronics, though. Exception to that is when I'm fishing shallow, where you can go long periods with no action but then can nail some big fish when they decided to come in to feed. And exploring new water always raises the odds that the skunk factor will come into play.

But day in and day out, on proven Bside spots, you can generally put a few fish on the ice. Fishing in the middle of a storm system is no different than fishing in the rain during summer. Sometimes it's very good, but when it's bad, it tends to be REALLY bad.

Originally Posted By: mstark83

.we get anymore snow it might be a snowmobiles only club.

Hey, that would be NO problem.

P.S. -- Jim, thanks for posting the vid and taking the pics, buddy!

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[Lee Lane]

Lol mark...of course its from b-side.....I know you fish the spot;) The day you seen me and my brother last year you re-directed us to a different location because you were ON IT! Also I was kinda hoping this wind would blow some of that snow off the ice.!.! ! I have acess to snomobiles but It would be a hassle to pull them up there vs just driving outt with the suv.

[Steve Foss]

Saw a couple fish on Friday, and quite a few in one spot on Saturday morning, but just couldn't make it happen. A couple would play chase for a minute or so, but then faded away. Changing our lures didn't bring them back in. We would change immediately when they disappeared. Perhaps we should have changed while they were still there? Would it make sense to go to a drastically smaller or bigger lure in this case? Or would it be better to change to something similarly sized but a different color?

When you get lookers that won't take, I always throw down a lure with a whole different look, not a similar lure of different size/color. Just the way I roll. I have no less than four rods rigged and ready at all times, and I almost never swap out lures, just reach for a different rod.

The 7 lber came only after I had quite a few big red bands that wouldn't come more than a foot or two off the bottom. I played the walleye game with one and eventually got the 5 lber to hit, so that told me at least one of those big red sluggish bands was a laker. After the next one came up but wouldn't even rise 2 feet off the bottom, I drilled a hole 15 feet away and moved my tip-up to it. Put the live golden shiner a foot off the bottom and started jigging again. Only a couple minutes later another big red band eyed my lure but wouldn't go, and a few seconds after it disappeared, the flag went up with the 7 lber.

Mostly, when I can't get them to go, I get more aggressive. We're talking about 95 times out of 100. But that didn't feel right on Saturday. The fish were so negative that getting aggressive made them disappear. Sometimes ya just gotta think on your feet and hope for the best.

[Lee Lane]

good trick tht works for me when fish are that negative is drop my bait to the bottom and do a very slow reel to the surface maybe 50 or 60% of the time they will then race up and hammer it but like anything else it dont work all the time

[Tullibee]

Thats a nice looking blue and white shack in the background on that video.

[Capt. Russ]

Good work Steve. A friend took an eighteen pounder from around Blueberry on Sunday.

[Steve Foss]

Russ, e-mail me the pic of that 18 and I'll post it. That's a PIG!

[Mike Stark]

better day on the ice today....iced two trout...my dad got the 2lber on a tip-up with a rainbow set about 10ft off the bottom..i got the 4lber on the same gold buckshot spoon...55fow...we marked over 10 fish though-out the day..all the trout came off the bottom...driving was tough...there are deep snow drifts out there...my explorer got stuck twice..we were able to push it out....no slush where we were...heard of a little slush up the north arm.

fresh lake trout tonight!! my moms first. we will be back at it tomorrow.

[Mike Stark]

lots of deep snow drifts...my explorer got stuck twice...we were able to push it out....you need high clearance to get around out there...no slush where we were...great conditions for snowmobiling.

[leech~~]

Hey Steve, don't I at least get an assist for taking the picture and video. Also, here is the link to the 7 lb'r video. I am not sure how to post them so here is the link.

Steve, nice Vid, I thought you were playing with a yo-yo there for a minute! Where was the clover leaf hole on that one?

[Steve Foss]

Glad you got the folks on some fish, Mike. Mmmmm, fresh lake trout! Steve, I didn't want to take the time to drill and slush out the cloverleaf.

[Jim Almquist]

Quote:

fresh lake trout tonight!! my moms first. we will be back at it tomorrow.

You have to quit spoiling your Mom and Dad like that

Sounds like a great day to be on the ice.

[leech~~]

Glad you got the folks on some fish, Mike. Mmmmm, fresh lake trout! Steve, I didn't want to take the time to drill and slush out the cloverleaf.

I hear that, it looks like you have the luck with you without the cloverleaf charm anyway!

[fishgutz77]

Thats a great avatar JIM.

Next b-side laker I get is gonna be that shot,thats great.

[Murdock26]

Hey all. I was out this last weekend fighting the weather as well. I have spent many long hours on the lake with no success but this weekend was different for me. I landed 5 between Sat and Sun. Mostly tubes and sucker minnows worked. 30-50 FOW. I have been craving the pull I hear they can produce and finally got to experience it. Awesome weekend for me. I think I will be up next Sunday through Tuesday for another shot. No numbers for the fish just some pictures and let them go for another day. Awesome experience fighting them. Hoping for a big boy...

P.S. How do I add pics