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Burntside Lake Ice/Snow Conditions and Fishing Reports


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  • Mike Stark

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  • leech~~

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What color Gulp minnows are you guys having the most success with, or are you using a variety?

I have few colors. Not going by label name, blue, chartruese, gray. I just match the color of the jig head I put it on. FWIW, Gulp is a pain when open holing. It freezes fast and sticks to everything. I have it on one rod and carry two more with other styles of lures. Fish stuff you have confidence in. That's your best ally.

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Thanks Wanderer! I appreciate the help. I'll have to give it a try next weekend while I am up and let you know how it went. I am looking forward to getting out on the lakes in the Tower/Ely area.

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Alright, so a question for folks that have been on Burntside recently. Am I crazy to be seriously considering driving a half-ton crew cab on Burntside this weekend? A buddy and I are trying to decide between bringing an Xterra or my F150. The problem with bringing the Xterra is we'd only be able to bring one house. It's supposed to be windy and cold tomorrow and Sunday morning and it would be nice to each have our own house.

I've been watching the weather and reading these reports for a couple weeks and it seems like, with the exception of Sat/Sun/Monday of this week, it has been COLD up there and there should be plenty of good ice to drive on...should be.

Honest opinions please.

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I was out on Burntside today. There are a lot of people driving trucks out. I took my snowmobile and was glad I did. The first spot I fished had only 11in of ice. The second spot had 11.5in of ice and truck tracks right where I drilled. The third spot had 15in of ice and lots of trucks around.

You can drive a truck out there but you have to be careful where you go. The ice thickness is not consistent. The second spot I fished had truck tracks through it and only 11.5in of ice.

Be careful out there. Just because there are trucks on the ice does not mean that the entire lake is safe for truck travel.

As for the fishing...

Iced 1 dink. Missed another. And lost a heavy fish. When I set the hook the rod doubled and the fish didn't move. It took a good run and then starting shaking its head and that was the end of that. Kastmaster spoon. Silver/green. Fished 30-55fow. All fish came from 45-50fow.

I was a little rusty. It was my first time out for lakers this season. smile

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Not sure what year your truck is, but an Xterra is not much lighter than most trucks and with a smaller wheelbase it will put its weight over a smaller area.

I only say this as a former Xterra owner. They are quite heavy on their own and typically weigh as much as most half tons except for the newer trucks which tend to weigh even more.

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Made it out to Burntside this afternoon. Landed two. One came from jigging a 3/8oz Northland Rippin Shad and the other off a tip up with a cisco on the bottom. 30-50fow.

I did not even get the Rippin Shad to the bottom before a big red bar came screaming up off the bottom. It just inhaled the lure. This was the first drop with this brand new lure fresh out of the packaging.

27in

IMAG0171-1.jpg

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Nice fish Mike!

Been itching to chase some lakers myself. Have you and your sleddog pals made any runs? You know where I'd be aiming for.

Thanks

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Nice fish Mike!

Been itching to chase some lakers myself. Have you and your sleddog pals made any runs? You know where I'd be aiming for.

Thanks

Folks have been up through 4mile and Moose lake but I have not heard anything from Snowbank. That trail needs a good amount of snow. Might be a bumpy ride! smile

Fished Burntside today from 9:30-3:30. 2 fish on the ice. 28in and a fat 29in. Both fish came off the same reef. ~30fow. Northland's 3/8oz rippin shad got both of them today. Marked a couple other fish but could not get them to go. 17-18in of ice.

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"Fished Burntside today from 9:30-3:30. 2 fish on the ice. 28in and a fat 29in. Both fish came off the same reef. ~30fow. Northland's 3/8oz rippin shad got both of them today. Marked a couple other fish but could not get them to go. 17-18in of ice."

Is driving the pickup around still a go with the new snow?

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Not a lot of new snow on the lake. I took out the snowmobile. Folks are driving tho. Just have to be careful about where you drive. Not all areas have drivable ice.

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I know y'all like pictures so I downloaded one of the 29. That thing hit like a ton of bricks and fought like a team of horses. It's still swimmin' for the next guy.

And the next guy was...

Me! gringrin

full-17997-17009-dscn3731.jpg

My first fish on Saturday and big fish for the weekend was the same fish from 2 weeks ago! She paid me a visit on another spot that was 303 yards (gps) away from our initial introduction. Still pullin hard but this time she gave me a chase first. The poster fish for C&R!

That was the highlight of the weekend. The bite was finicky for us and others I talked to out there. We all saw fish but few hit on a chase and some that did were short strikers. Tip ups put out better than jigging. For our group of 3 we iced only 6 fish in two days.

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

Wow, did you re-measure it? Maybe it grown another 1/2" in two weeks? grin

Any slush spots up there yet? Or just not enough snow for that? I'm having flash backs from last year. eek I'm feeling a trip up in the next week or two.

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She hit a different lure this time; a Lindy Flyer with a small tube jig. She really didn't have quite the power she had last time and seemed just a skosh smaller. The first time I measured her was with a steel tape measure to exactly 29 inches. I had the tape flat on the ice below the fish rather than laying it on top and following her contour. With the careful measure and the time it took to get a few pictures I was getting concerned about how long she was out of the water so I took my time resucissitating her in the ice hole.

This time was different. When I realized it was the same fish I just quickly snapped a pic and measured her with the wood handle on my Big Dipper ice scoop and slipped her back down the hole. A tad over 28. I thought about how she probably went inactive for a while after the first catch to recouperate and lost some mass. She's still healthy but it made me think about the effect of handling a fish for the time I did to get some better pics.

You have lots of time to think while laker fishing. wink

Leech~ no slush problems on the lake to worry about. Travel conditions are execellent and have enabled a lot of people to be on lake; the most I've seen on a consistent basis and the most permenant shacks too.

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

Thanks for the ice report Wanderer. Man your up early, are you at work already too? grin

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

Well I have made some reso's at a motel and will be hitting B/S this weekend. smile

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Tracy,

How are you sure it was the same trout without using a retina scan, finger prints or DNA?? gringrin

Same license plates perhaps?? confused

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

Tracy,

How are you sure it was the same trout without using a retina scan, finger prints or DNA?? gringrin

Same license plates perhaps?? confused

He used finger paints and traced the tail like in school! grin
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Nice fish LunkerCity. Glad you got a nice one today. It's all about putting your time in.

I fished all day and only iced one fish. A nice 26in. Caught in the first 10min of fishing. 36fow. Same Northland Rippin Shad as before. Only marked two other fish. Tried a bunch of new spots today.

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Thanks Mike, same here only marked two others than the one I caught. Didn't see a fish on the graph until 12:30.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • leech~~
      Nope not me.  May want to go nextdoor and ask around?  
    • smurfy
      Looks to me like Leech brought his chair home!!😅😆
    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
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