Babe's Bait Shop

[Saltwateranglin]

Howdy Folks,

Hoping someone could shed a little light on a bait shop in Ely for me. I just aquired an antique carved wood fish that used to hang in a bait shop called Babe's in Ely Minnesota. Being from PA I really don't know anything about Ely and was hoping one of you fellows could shed some light on how old Babe's is, what kind of bait shop it is, is it on the water, etc. Any info would be great. I'd like to put a history to this old carving.

Heck...maybe one of you remembers the old hanging fish, it's about 40 inches long, blue, and says "Fresh Fish" on it. I think it's quite old and collectable. If any of you have a photo of the shop with or without the fish I would sure appreciate it if you would post it or email it to me.

Thanks for your time ya'll!

"Over the rail and into the pail"

[chunkytrout]

Wow! Well, my friend Pat owns babes. He's owned it for about 6 years and they bought it from the original owner. Now, I'm not sure on all the details but I'm sure we could get you some answers. Babe's is the first place on the west side of town. To my knowledge, it's the only place left in Ely that traps their own bait. "We treat our bait like family" is the slogan. There's definetly history there and sounds like you have a chunk as well. I'll see what I can find out for you.

[Saltwateranglin]

Thanks Mike....appreciate any help you can muster. Love to collect this kind of stuff and sure makes my day to know some history. Maybe this piece will bring some luck to my fishin' year!

"Over the rail and into the pail"

[zappy]

This is probably old news but Babe's bait shop appears in a Minn Kota commercial that airs on the Babe Winkelman TV program regularily. For the past few months I've been seeing the commercial on TV and thinking "that building sure looks familiar." So the other day I took a photo of the bait shop and compared it to the TV commercial (I view the Babe Winkelman show via the Internet). The commercial must have been filmed some time ago as the building now has yellow trim instead of white. Also, the name Milt's is superimposed over Babe's. I figured I would post this in case anyone else was Google'ing "Milt's" and wondering where that was in Ely.

[Great Outdoors]

Call Norman or Andy Kainz, the original owners of Babe's.

Their names should be in the Ely phone directory.

I'm sure they could tell you the history of the carving.

[muc33]

Pat was a treat to meet while getting ready to fish Burntside with Steve Foss a month ago, he was full of information and a real jokester. He sold us a great lure and of course it caught a Laker!!!! I put his sticker on my truck and will be sure to visit Babes everytime I set foot in Ely if for nothing else, just to say HI!!

By the way, he did tell that Steve Foss couldn't catch a fish even if you threw one at him in the boat! Hehehehehehe, ooops, he was wrong there! We were Laker takers on BSide.

[Great Outdoors]

Pat hasn't owned the shop for over two years, you must have talked to someone else?????

[Steve Foss]

Chad, you talked to Russ, who bought the place from Pat, who bought the place from Norman and Andy Kainz.

Uh, who's on first?