Burntside Lake Fishing Reports---Lake Conditions

[leech~~]

Nice thing about a Vex, you can still use both at one time!

[Surface Tension]

When you hit zoom you have a split screen. Normal view is on the right side from roughly 12 o'clock to 6 o'clock. Left side is Zoom side. Use the down arrow till you see the bottom show up on the left side. My guess like Jim's is your not going far enough. If you continue to hit the down arrow you will see the bottom rise on the left side. You want it to show at roughly 7 o'clock. Once you've set that you have a 5' Zoom window on the left side. Hit Zoom again for a 10' window and a third time to turn the Zoom off.

[Steve Foss]

For lakers, using zoom on electronics doesn't help. They use the whole water column, charging fast and hard up 60 feet following a lure to right under the ice. Panfish and walleye niceties such as target separation don't apply here. Especially on the older Marcum and some Vex units with the small dials, it's much better to have the whole dial available to make it easy to follow the action.

Best electronics specifically for lakers, IMO, are the flat-faced Vex, 'Bird ICE series and Marcums. Bigger faces = easier to see.

[leech~~]

Best electronics specifically for lakers, IMO, are the flat-faced Vex, 'Bird ICE series and Marcums. Bigger faces = easier to see.

Oh, your old eye's are just getting worst!

[fishin_finn]

I went out Sunday afternoon and had the complete opposite results. Tried to go off the road in a chevy 4x4 2500 and got stuck. (then again my tires are in need of replacement soon), but the snow was pretty deep where I was. Saw another truck stuck too. However, ended up getting 2 trout in a few hours. 5 and 8lb. Graphed fish all afternoon. Would aggressively fly up at my hook and stop inches away. Would follow it up and down 10-15 feet sometimes 10-20 times, but would not commit. Must have changed bait/lures, 20 times. Frustrating...both fish caught came around 2pm - 3pm. Next day (Monday) same thing, a couple of fish 2-3pm, graphed fish all day with only 2 that would commit. (Lost one trying to get the head started up the hole). Ice is nice and thick......

[Steve Foss]

Clearly, conditions are varying depending on where you exit the plowed roads. Some areas do not have deep drifts, others do. Bring shovels!

We did not have any problems driving off the plowed roads today.

Should have been a four fish day. We had one drop a bait rig, which is quite rare for us. And we had another in that hit three times on jigging lures and was briefly hooked all three times over the course of 90 seconds. DOH!

What we did land were a 28 incher and a 32.5 incher. If ya gotta land only two fish, those aren't a bad size to go with. And the guys brought some big rainbows along. Gotta love the bait rigs!

Lorin's 28-incher

My 32.5

[leech~~]

Nice Lakers guys.

To me Laker fishing is kind of like Hunting a nice 10 pointer. You may have to sit in the stand for two days but it could pay off with a nice trophy! The big difference, you can always let this trophy go!

[Steve Foss]

We did however find a handheld GPS on the plowed road, if anyone lost one or know how did, message me what kind and I will make sure they get it back.

Just helped a guy get unstuck out on the ice today. Turns out he was fishing Bside NW of Dollar Island off one end of the ice road the day you found the unit, and he proceeded to tell me about the GPS he lost. He's not an HSO member or lurker. I told him about this post, and then took his name, phone number, and the specs on the GPS.

I just PMd you a bit ago with the info, John.

Hopefully it's the right one. And I think I actually drove right by it. I had a bunch of other pickups in my group that day and saw something smallish in the ice road south of Dollar. Normally I stop for that stuff, because if it's trash I throw it in the truck. And if it's something of value I try to track down who lost it. But we were in a hurry to get off the ice and to the Boathouse, so I kept going. Also turns out he was part of a group fishing 50 feet from us on the 24th/25th.

Burntside is a small world.

[Murdock26]

Beautiful fish guys. That big one is a dandy. Looks really healthy. A triple hole to get her through...:)

[Barack]

That's what i call a native burntsider. Good year class fish. Nice one!

[laker1]

Talking 4 inches of new snow for Ely area Friday night. I know some lakes are getting slush,I guess it varies from lake to lake.

[Steve Foss]

Here's the NWS forecast for Ely:

Tonight Patchy fog after midnight. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, with a low around 11. Southeast wind around 5 mph.

Friday Mostly cloudy, with a high near 33. South wind around 5 mph.

Friday Night A 50 percent chance of snow after midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 23. Southwest wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the evening.

Saturday Snow. High near 32. Southeast wind around 5 mph becoming calm in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 80%.

Saturday Night A 50 percent chance of snow. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 18. Light and variable wind becoming northwest 5 to 10 mph after midnight.

[Great Outdoors]

Talking 4 inches of new snow for Ely area Friday night. I know some lakes are getting slush,I guess it varies from lake to lake.

The only place I've found slush on Burntside is within 150 feet of a shoreline, the main areas seem to be okay.

If we get the 3 inches predicted, it may change things, but not drastically!

[Steve Foss]

We got 4-5 inches Saturday/Sunday. We had some good compaction the week before, so we are only a little tougher than before this last snow.

I now consider travel by full sized 4x4 marginal off the plowed roads. Biggest problem is that the plowed road berms are fairly tall and have gathered a lot of snow/drifting close to them. So if the berm is 3 feet tall, you've got about 30 yards of snow that deep just off the roads because of the drifting.

I'm not saying you can't do it. I'm saying you have to WANT to do it. And bring a shovel or two. I still haven't found slush except in the typical shoreline/narrows areas that gather snow. So the worst that's likely to happen to a crew in a full sized 4x4 with good tires, and off the plowed roads, is that you'll have to shovel a bit here and there.

Best news is, it looks very likely that we'll have strong ice all the way through March 31.

[chaffmj]

Quote:

Best news is, it looks very likely that we'll have strong ice all the way through March 31.

Good that will give me a couple of more chances to get that smell of skunk off of me.

[Spearing Machine]

I hit the lake one more time before taking off from Ely in route to my next stop on Spring Break 2013 NE MN style. I fished from 8-1 today and it was windier than what was predicted as well as slightly cooler. I noticed right after I drilled my first hole the conditions changed after the snow we received Saturday into Sunday. The lake is beginning to flood around road berms, some permanents and where I drilled holes.

As far as fishing I had a 3/8 oz white Lindy Buck-tail down with a gulp smelt down for the first couple hours with not a looker. As soon as I dropped down a shad colored Lindy darter I had a fish come flying up and chase but I couldn't trigger a strike. I had one other looker with the darter. Around noon as I was grilling up some brats in the portable I looked out the window and say the arctic warrior flag get tripped which had a frozen Cisco a couple feet off the bottom. The fish was peeling line off the spool and I gave it a little time before tightening up and setting the hook. It was solid and then it decided to run for 10 seconds. Just as I was able to put two cranks on the reel the rod went straight. The fish snapped my 10lb flourocarbon leader. I was more than a little ticked off, but I guess that is fishing. No idea how big the fish was as I have only caught 1 other laker a few years back, I'm just going to say it was BIG. Over all a fun couple days around Ely and out on beautiful Burntside. I know I will definitely be back again, even if the fish don't cooperate the scenery is unbeatable compared to the barren Red River Valley that I am finishing my M.S. degree at.

[delcecchi]

Pike? deadbait and no wire?

[caseymcq]

... My 32.5 ...

Good lord! Look at the shoulders on that dude... You could have thrown a saddle on that beast and rode it around the lake for a while.

Nice fish!

[Steve Foss]

The GPS and its rightful owner have been reunited.

[Mike Stark]

Made it out for a half day today. Got 1 22in trout in 34fow on Northland tackles rippin' shad silver/black. Ended up keeping it because its gill was bleeding. I found a couple smelt, a few bigger bugs, and a rock in its belly.

I did see a couple trucks by the south side of state island. I was on my snowmobile.

[lispeej]

Nice! Thanks for the report.

[Great Outdoors]

Mike Stark observed a few trucks south of State Island, which I'm sure were following old tracks.

If anyone is thinking about fishing Burntside, I'd recommend bringing a snowmobile or your fishing may very well be limited to areas that were previously plowed. These "old" roads are getting quite a bit of snow on them the last 4 or 5 days.

Taking a full size 4x4 off plowed roads will give you a high percentage chance of getting stuck, and the majority of your day may be shoveling, not fishing.

I'm not trying to discourage anyone from coming up to fish, just want to make sure you are fully aware of the conditions, & can plan accordingly.

[leech~~]

Mike Stark observed a few trucks south of State Island, which I'm sure were following old tracks.

If anyone is thinking about fishing Burntside, I'd recommend bringing a snowmobile or your fishing may very well be limited to areas that were previously plowed. These "old" roads are getting quite a bit of snow on them the last 4 or 5 days.

Taking a full size 4x4 off plowed roads will give you a high percentage chance of getting stuck, and the majority of your day may be shoveling, not fishing.

I'm not trying to discourage anyone from coming up to fish, just want to make sure you are fully aware of the conditions, & can plan accordingly.

And you better ask permission from the road troll first!

[Mike Stark]

Mike Stark observed a few trucks south of State Island, which I'm sure were following old tracks.

They did follow old tracks most of the way. Snowmobiles are by far the best way to get around out there.

[Jim Panfish Uran]

Is that Steve Foss in that photo?? HEHEHAHHAH!

[chaffmj]

Thanks for the updates Go and Mike. I am planning on going out this weekend and I don't feel like doing a lot of shoveling so I'll stick near the roads.

[lispeej]

I can't wait to get back out there.

[Steve Foss]

A tough day today. I was out with some out-of-town buddies who come up once a year. Our party of five fished only a half day over the middle of the day. We had three pickups on dead cisco on the bottom, but all three fish dropped them. We had two pretty hot lookers and that was all.

We were working shoreline structure up the North Arm in 35 to 60 FOW. If you're venturing off plowed roads in pickups, make sure you stay in previous truck tracks, and bring a shovel. The snow is no deeper than it was last week but it's tougher to get through it now. Our party was in a tracked Polaris Ranger and two snowmobiles. There was one relatively fresh set of pickup tracks that reached about half way up the Arm, and that was it. They'll probably be snowed/blown in within a day or two.

Problem near the plowed roads is that there are so many high plow berms that snow has drifted to the tops of them, reaching as far as 30 yards or more out from each side of the road. Even if you take the time to shovel/knock down a berm to be through it, you have a healthy chunk of deep snow to navigate before it thins back out.

So I'm no longer recommending truck travel off the roads.

Hoping for a good warmup, though that's not in the forecast. Spoke with two groups at the landing when we came in, and they didn't have any fish either, and only had a couple lookers. One was fishing NW of Waters Island and the other over by the East Arm. Seemed like a day of not much fish movement.

As it's been almost all winter, we're experiencing unstable weather, with very few periods of sunny high pressure lasting more than a day. One little front will come through and spit some snow, then we'll have once nice day or day and a half and another little front will move through.

You never know when those lakers are going to turn on. I've done equally well (and poorly) in all weather conditions, so when someone asks me the best weather to fish in for winter Bside lakers, my answer always is: Whatever weather you have that day.

[laker1]

Talking about 4+ inches Sunday night for the area. That must be the most snow on Burntside lake in a few years?

[Steve Foss]

Looks like snow is supposed to hit late Sunday (after 1 a.m. Monday, actually). NWS has not put out an accumulation forecast yet. With permies being off the ice this weekend, my guess is those Burntside ice roads will go unattended unless someone really wants to keep them open.