Heading up to Ely the weekend of the 16th to do some lake trout fishing. Never been lake trout fishing before. Any tips or recommendations on must have gear would be greatly appreciated.
Thinking about Burntside for Lakers and would be nice to get into some Splake or Rainbows while we are up there.
Do people drive trucks on Burntside? Anyone been up there recently? What’s the ice like?
Here is the Ely Laker info. Last I heard he may even have an opening for the weekend if you are looking for a guide.https://www.facebook.com/fosstrophyfishing/
Ben Putnam is the man you want to talk to.
Check out the BWCA fishing forum. Use the search tool, enter “lake trout ice” in the box and go to work. Lots of info over there.
Yes people drive trucks out on burntside. Large ripping raps, slab raps, jigging rap, 1oz white tube jigs, airplane jigs, large spoons. Find deep water that butts up to shallow water quickly, like a cliff. Lakers use these areas to push smelt up against to trap them. 40ft is usually a good area to start and don’t be afraid to try shallower. They are the one fish I miss fishin the most while I lived up there. You can be very aggressive fishing them. Keep them chasing your bait, reel up as fast you can, if they follow it up and don’t bite, drop it back down and keep repeating till you get one to commit. very fun…
Thanks guys super helpful as always. Any bait shop recommendations in Ely?
babe’s or the great outdoors are both good choices, If your wanting to get ciscoes great outdoors would be your best bet between the two. However I am not sure if they will even have them, they got into some legal trouble (feds even involved) last year about where the ciscoes came from their distributor, as to where he was netting them.
they got into some legal trouble (feds even involved) last year about where the ciscoes came from their distributor, as to where he was netting them.
I don’t believe any charge’s were made. However, the ciscoes did get confiscated.
Like said above trucks do drive on the lake but if you can bring a snowmobile it will increase your mobility and your odds of getting on other trout lakes. Babe’s, Great Outdoors and Lucky Seven for bait shops with GO being your best bet for Burntside info.
Does Ben have a website or #
However, he did move away from the Ely area and now lives in the Twin Cities so I don’t know how active his guide business is. Good guy though!
I was up there two weeks ago and got skunked on Burntside-fished parts of two days. There is an ice road out of the Van Vac landing. Maintained by any number of fisherman with plows on their trucks (and no one collecting a fee-i might have flipped one of those truckers some gas money but never got close enough to them to chat). You will want 4wd at minimum and ground clearance will give you access to more areas. There was not too much snow up there but there was slush in some areas so make an educated decision if you venture off the road with your truck. Snowmobiles seemed to be the preferred method of transportation.
Im loyal to Jim at the Great Outdoors. He does NOT have ciscos this year. As mentioned above there is some ongoing investigation as to where his ciscos were netted (not by him but by a outfitter) near prairie portage (and whether they actually came from canadian waters). It sounds like the authorities are also reinterpretting the laws about whether you can trap minnows anywhere in the BWCA for resale. Last years supply was all confiscated and I don’t think the trapper would have been allowed to trap this year. There are only a couple VHS certified/permitted cisco operations in the state. The other significant one is near Park Rapids I believe and Jim thought that early ice prevented them from trapping this year. SO moral of the story-if you want ciscos-good luck. If you find vhs tested ciscos buy em. But if you’re fishing Burntside you certainly don’t need them. In fact the smelt population in Burntside essentially displaced all the ciscos in that lake so its not even a natural forage. Frozen smelt might be a better presentation for Burntside (Jim doesn’t have any of those either btw). Meanwhile Snowbank on the other side of Ely doesn’t have the smelt and does have ciscos. The guys talk about using bigger baits in general over there, downsizing on Burntside.
hope this helps
tg
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