Overall it was a good opener this weekend! People were catching nice fish almost everywhere. Reports are still coming in but several Brookies 20″+ were brought up on Saturday, a 30″ Rainbow weighed in around 12 pounds, Lake Trout and Splake of all sizes were caught and several 10 pound walleye were brought up by people targetting lakers!
Good to here that others were catching fish. It was a pretty tough opener for me on Burntside. Fished Saturday from 7am to 5pm saw 5 possible game fish on the locator, no bites. One of the guys had a fish hooked up right away (assuming it was a Laker) on Saturday but lost it after a brief run. Changed spots a few times but didn’t matter. Sunday started in the same spot as the day before and one of the other guys caught a 25″ Lake trout, beautiful fish. Didn’t see any other fish and left around noon Sunday. Hopefully my next trip will fulfill the dream of multiple Lakers on one day.
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Don’t be afraid to downsize on Burntside. Silver spoons and rippin raps work better than live bait and ciscos most of the time. I’ll be on Burntside the rest of the week through the weekend so I’ll update later on anything I find out.
That’s a nice laker you guys got though!
I’m in Ely almost every weekend at Camp Widjiwagan. This is the first year I have targeted lakers and am really looking forward to landing some North Arm beauties. Fished last Saturday between 25 and 40 feet and marked a couple fish. I will have to try downsizing my offering like Ben suggested. Nothing was willing to take the cisco. Are the flats producing on Burntside? Trying to avoid crowds that are setting up on traditional laker spots.
Look for staging contours with loops or turns. When it is sunny with high pressure slow the presentation in deeper water 45-80 feet. When it’s cloudy or a lower barometer, work a more aggressive presentation between 35-50 feet. Darker baits when cloudy with bright and flashy when sunny. Burntside doesn’t have Cisco in it, so using those on top ups seldom rears a flag. I’ve been putting crappie-chub sized minows on a #8 orange painted hook for my set line and I’ve gotten 1 trout on it all season. #5 Jigging Raps and small 1/12-1/4oz spoons sometimes tipped with minnow heads has pulled up 14-15 fish for us on Burntside. Tinglers, Slender Spoons, Castmasters, Swedish pimples and PK Spoons are the more popular spoons. Some guys are using buck tail jigs and a few are being caught on 3″ tubes. 2-3″ Smelt are the main forage in Burntside and they are plentiful. The fish usually aren’t eating because they’re hungry, they’re eating because you made them want to. Jigging raps are my favorite to make them want to eat! Here’s a fish Bret Amundson from MNSJ caught yesterday on a #5 fluorescent red jigging rap, you should have seen the one that we couldn’t get through the hole!
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