August 13th, 2024
***Fishing Report***
Walleye - Yet another major cold snap swept through the Ely area last week, dropping water temps from 76 to 68 degrees. Clearly this has thrown a wrench into the walleye bite for many. Cold weather had anglers thinking of large minnows on a jig or lindy rigging. These anglers were not disappointed as they were able to catch walleyes while others struggled. As weather conditions stabilized, walleyes have begun to bite again on spinner rigs, tipped with a crawler and slip bobbers with a leech floated over shallow rocks. Locations to find walleyes vary greatly from lake to lake now. Some lakes, river mouths have been hot, others sunken islands, weedlines, shallow rocky flats in 6-12 feet of water and for a handful of lakes, deep water trolling has been on fire. Hot colors remain orange/chartreuse, pink/white and gold.
Smallies - Smallies too can now be found in many locations. Shallow rocks and timber have been a good location for topwater fishing early in the mornings or cloudy days. As water warms up, big smallies have been sliding out to sunken islands where they feed on schools of ciscos. Here strolling large soft plastics has been deadly. Clearly not all smallies are doing the same thing, so anglers have also been finding smallies on shorelines with spinnerbaits and wacky worms.
Panfish - The sunfish and crappie bite has clearly cooled off. Dropping water temps kicked the sunnies out of the shallow water for a few days. Anglers found sunnies more on weedlines for a few days. Small wax worms were really effective on these guys. Last couple reports have the sunnies back up in weedbeds and pencil reeds. Small topwater flies, angleworms and small soft plastics have been effective again. Crappies have been hanging just off the weedbeds until the evening hours when they slide into the weedbeds. Beetle spins, jig/twister and small crankbaits have been effective here.
Stream Trout - Rainbows trout didn’t seem to mind the recent cold snap. Anglers continue to do good with rainbow trout trolling cowbells tipped with a small crankbait or spinner rig with half a crawler.
Lake Trout - Lakers too didn’t seem to mind the recent cold snap as anglers reported catching quality trout this last week. Anglers continue to use down riggers for dipsy divers down by the thermocline in 40-60 feet of water. Large flashy spoons have been the most popular lure to troll. Colors have varied greatly from angler to angler, so be sure to keep changing colors until you find the color of the day.
Pike - Pike fishing has remained somewhat slow as warm water temps have the big pike seeking cooler deeper water. Small pike continue to be caught by angler along weedlines, mouths of shallow bays and river mouths. Large spinnerbaits, minnow baits and spoons have been catching pike.
