August 19th, 2025
***Fishing Report***
Walleye - Fall like cold snap has really shut down the walleye bite in the Ely area. Anglers have been reporting that they are seeing walleye’s sitting in 10-15ft of water, but are struggling to get them to bite. Oftentimes, if they strike, they just hold on to the baits, unwilling to eat the bait. Covering water, looking for biters is more important than ever right now. Trolling with leadcore, coving ground, is where the best reports were this last week. Anglers have been trolling in 12-20ft of water with perch colored crankbaits over large sand and mud flats. Unable to troll? Well fishing crawlers on lindy rigs or 1/4oz jig and half a crawler, along windy shorelines, preferably shorelines with rocks. Remember walleyes are not very active, so be sure to give walleyes some time to eat your presentation before setting the hook. Gold, black/org, and orange/chart, have been the most productive colors.
Smallmouth - Smallmouth anglers too noticed a drop in big bass coming into the boat this last week too. Reports of small bass being active were very common. Early morning topwater bite has cooled off for many. Spinnerbaits, in-line spinners, chatterbaits and wacky worms continued to produce fish, but again on the small side for the Ely area. Many anglers reported 8-12ft being the best depth to find bass.
Pike - Pike enjoy cooler water temps so it makes sense that good pike reports have been coming, especially during this cold snap. Anglers have been reporting they are catching quality size pike with large swimbaits, large spoons and buzzbaits. Weedbeds, mouths of shallow bays and around current areas have been very productive.
Panfish - Sudden drop in water temps knocked the majority of crappies and sunfish out of the shallows and into a little deeper water where they find warmer, stable water temps. Both crappies and sunfish dropped out to 12-18ft of water, along deeper weedlines. Small red worms, fished close to the bottom, at the base of weedlines was the most productive way to catch them. Crappies on the other hand were more suspended about 8-12ft below the surface. Small beetle spins and jig/twister swam slowly along these depths, during the evening hours was the best way to catch a few crappies.
Stream Trout - Many savvy anglers knew stream trout also enjoy this kind of weather so they went trout fishing. Trolling small trolling spoons and small crankbaits, about 10 down, produced good numbers of stream trout. Anglers fishing from the bank reported good luck casting small spinners, floating a night crawler off the bottom or under a bobber about 10ft below the surface.
Large cold front has shutdown many of the bites happening in the Ely area.