Hey guys,
I am going up to Ely this weekend with my girlfriend for our annual valentines weekend trip. I was wondering how the snow conditions are on the ice? Can you get by with a truck or do you need a snowmobile? Any info would be awesome.
Davis23
Snowpack is pretty light but crusty. Snowmobile traffic on the lakes is good, but it can be a little rough off lake. It’s a good idea to have 4×4 in the truck to handle the drifted spots. Make sure you know the lake you are driving on or stick to plowed roads. Hidden rock piles, springs and areas with current can still be hazardous. Otherwise, you can drive almost anywhere on most of the areas lakes.
We got back from Ely today. The lake travel is good there are some spots were you may want a snowmobile I think most places you are fine with a 4wd truck. On a fishing front we did well rainbow fishing. we kept the two we need for dinner 15 and 16 incher caught 1 that was bigger and 1 that was a little smaller. That was Friday. Friday night I ended up getting that 24 hour flue bug going around so Saturday was a wash. Sunday we fished birch for a little while and ended up finding a few crappies and small walleyes. With the rainbows what was working best was a ultra light ripping rap jigged for a minute than go to a small jig and wax worm. I like a northland mud bug but any heavy small horizontal jig will work. The trout were coming in anywhere from 5 feet down to a foot off the bottom. The crappies and walleyes all hit a ultra light ripping rap.
All and all other than getting sick was a good weekend. We stayed at the Grand Ely Lodge it was very top notch like always. I am sure we will have to get up there again soon. good luck to anyone getting up there and keep your lines tight.
Thanks for the update Allan, that answers my questions from the thread I started. Did you get back on the trails at all and will an ATV do on those and the lakes?
most of them you would be okay with an atv. However I recommend a snowmobile of a atv. I did get on the trail just fine with a snowmobile. There is a lot of hard pack snow than there is softer stuff. I feel like your tires may did down to deep on the lakes with more snow. Ben can probably shed some more light on it and maybe I am wrong but that’s how I feel. good luck and be safe.
Finland to Ely covers a lot of area and I can’t speak for every lake in between. Snowmobiles and 4X4 trucks would be reccomended, but a guy could get around in quite a few spots on a wheeler too. Glad you got in on some nice Rainbows Allan!
finally here are the pics of that weekend.
My Girlfriends first rainbow threw the ice
my perfect eater trout
and then the bigger trout I wish I got a better pic of him but wanted to hurry to get him back and I wondered away from the camera girl. that’s a 24 inch pole next to it.
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p.s. Ben have you ever seen a stocked rainbow in that area that dark? BTW my date is wrong on my camera and that other pictures were taken with my girlfriends phone.
Allan,
I seen that quite a bit when I lived in Ely. When I would catch a darker colored one I was usually up in the shallows next to the trees, when I would fish the open basin then it usually the lighter colored rainbows. I mainly would fish Miners. These fish were caught in the same spot and you can see the difference in color
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ok sweet thanks and this one came from the same area but it came in from the bottom of the trees and shot up hard. so maybe the fact that it was cruising the bottom played a role into that. It maybe worth noting that the fish that I cleaned and almost every fish I cleaned from that lake had snails in the bellies. The snails live on the trees and they come in and pic them right off the trees kind of cool to watch. Thanks for the info Justin I was thinking it may have been a different strand of trout that they stocked at one point.
The darker fish are the males and the lighter fish are the females. Take notice the kype on the darker fish.
These fish still go through their spawning progressions, even though they don’t actually spawn. Males get darker in color and grow a kype. For some reason they do this over the winter months. Most males I’ve caught during the winter tend to “milk” all over the place when I grab them and the females are generally ripening and are loaded with eggs (especially the bigger trout).
Have seen this in both the brookies and rainbows.
Pretty much what DeRangedFishingguy said, I’ve noticed it is more common in some lakes more others.
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