August 11th, 2026
***Fishing Report***
Walleye - Trolling bite continues to grow in popularity for many anglers this last week, as walleyes remain scattered over deep flats. Smaller crankbaits in that 2-2.5” range have been the top producers, when fished in that 15-25 foot depth range. During that last hour of daylight anglers have been trolling about 10-15ft down over 35-70ft of water for trophy walleyes. These walleyes out over deep water looking for ciscos. Trolling hasn’t been the only way to catch walleyes. Early in the morning, anglers are having good luck fishing with leeches either in a spinner rig or a jig, in 15-25ft of water. As the sun gets up it definitely seems crawlers start working better. Regardless of the bait, these anglers have been focusing on sunken islands, again in that 15-25ft of water. Hot colors were firetiger, perch and gold.
Smallmouth Bass - Classic summer pattern continues on Ely area lakes. What this means for anglers is topwater early in the mornings, along shorelines in that 5-10 ft range. As the sun gets up spinners, chatterbaits, urchins, in-line spinners and crankbaits, fished a little deeper in that 10-15 ft depth range. Larger boulders you can find the better as bass love to hide between them.
Panfish - Crappie anglers continue to report that they are finding active crappies in and around cabbage beds. During the day the thicker the cabbage the better as crappies will set up on the shady side of the cabbage stand waiting for bait to come by. Anglers have been having great luck dropping jig/twisters or hair jigs on the shady side. As the sun starts to go down, crappies will break away from the cabbage and actively start looking for food around weedbeds and weedlines. This is when baits like beetle spins, jig/twister and jig/paddle tail, fished 1-2ft below the surface are really effective.
Stream Trout - Stream Trout anglers continue to report easy fishing for rainbows this last week. As with last week anglers had really good success trolling small crankbaits or spoons behind cowbells in that 20-40ft depth range. Anglers fishing from shore have had success floating a night crawler 2-5ft off the bottom.
Lake Trout - Lake trout anglers reported having some success this last week trolling with either downriggers or dipsy divers in that 40-60ft depth range. Anglers were mainly trolling with large spoons, over water depths ranging from 50-100ft. Anglers fishing from a canoe were drifting over similar depths, but were more often than not vertically jigging bucktails or tubes.
An angler holds up a nice lake trout caught on Burntside Lake while trolling with a spoon. Trolling has been producing solid lake trout in the Ely area near the BWCA. Swing by Arrowhead Outdoors – voted #1 bait and tackle shop in MN – for spoons, divers, and everything you need to get after them.