Garden Lake Resort Blog

It finally feels like spring is just around the corner in Ely. It has been an unusually long and cold winter here in the northern Minnesota. As temps climb into the 20s and 30s during the day the crappie fishing is also starting to heat up. Garden Lake boasts some of the best sized crappies in the area with minimal traffic, giving you a quiet secluded ice fishing experience. Combine that with beautiful scenery and well furnished cabins and you have the makings for a great weekend getaway!

Not sure where to start? Give us a call and we can help you plan your trip, give you tips on what to bring and show you where to fish when you get here. We look forward to hearing from you this spring!

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The lakes in the area are forming some nice clear ice which is suitable for foot traffic up to about five inches in places. While this is the norm for foot travel, no ice should be considered safe. It's always wise to drill as you go and have adequate emergency tools with you. One should wear a life jacket or flotation suit and carry a set of ice picks. If you are going to be out with or near others, a good length of rope and a throwable flotation cushion. Bunching up at this time is not a good idea, so keep your distance from each other so that if someone goes through, they aren't taking others along with them.

Walleyes up to twenty inches have been taken on a local area lake, with many more smaller fish in the mix. Active jigging with small spoons such as Buck shot rattlers, Rattlin Flyers, or Frosties tipped with either waxies or a minnow heads can be deadly for early ice walleyes. Thumping the bottom with Lindy darters and Salmo chubby darters stirs up the bottom sediment and that can be the dinner bell for perch and walleyes which can draw them in from a distance.

Pike fishing and spearing is also picking up momentum. Suckers under a tip-up are working well and some big pike are being drawn to the hole with either artificial decoys or large suckers.

While the lakes may be covered with ice and snow, plenty of fish are waiting to grab hold of one of you fishing lures. This is the best time of the year to go after trout, as they're at depths that can be reached with "standard" equipment. Walleye, northern and crappie fishing can be equally as exciting and productive. Many of the lakes that are too difficult to get into in the summer are now easily reached by snowmobile, show shoes, cross-country skis or dog team. You can break your own trail or travel on any number of well-groomed or packed routes. Your fishing trip can be as comfortable or as rugged as you like. Many people combine staying at a warm lakeside cabin like Garden Lake Resort with an extended trip into their favorite lake. Others prefer day trips in the comfort of a heated fish house. All in all, don’t let a little cold and ice stop you from fishing all year round. Follow this link to the MN DNR site for your fishing license and information. http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/licenses/fishing/index.html?type=fishing While in Ely, try out all the local restaurants and stores for the perfect Christmas items on your list! www.gardenlakeresort.com

If hooking a big walleye while staying at Garden Lake Resort is the plan, spring is generally considered the time to go. While walleye are rather active and generally much easier to find during the spring, it still takes some tactics to reel them in. If the plan is to drop a line, hook a fish and go home happy within a few minutes, chances are disappointment will ensue.

Although springtime is the favorite for walleye fishing, anglers need to keep a few things in mind. Everything from actual weather conditions to location and bait can impact the outcome of a fishing trip. The trick is really gauging the action carefully before picking a spot to stick in.

Location Matters in The Spring

Here at Garden Lake we not only have walleyes but we have whale-eyes as well. When my son Jesse was small he would call the walleyes, whale-eyes, which always got a laugh! During this time of the year as the temperatures go into the single numbers and there is little snow on the newly frozen lake, there are strange sounds that we hear at night, even in the lodge. There is a groaning, thumping, and almost whale sounding noise that is heard as the lake begins to make ice. Because of the lack of heavy snow on the ice, there is little insulation from the cold temps. As the ice builds, there are cracking sounds from the pressure of the ice expansion, which when standing on the ice, is an exciting experience. Maybe all the thumping and cracking and groaning are the whales trying to come up for a breath of clean Garden Lake air! Maybe next spring and summer when you visit Garden Lake Resort and are out fishing, you might just hook a Whale-eye! That may be the biggest fish story you will ever tell to your friends. Happy Holidays from Garden Lake Resort to you all!

While the lakes may be covered with ice and snow, plenty of fish are waiting to grab hold of one of you fishing lures. This is the best time of the year to go after trout, as they're at depths that can be reached with "standard" equipment. Walleye, northern and crappie fishing can be equally as exciting and productive. Many of the lakes that are too difficult to get into in the summer are now easily reached by snowmobile, show shoes, cross-country skis or dog team. You can break your own trail or travel on any number of well-groomed or packed routes. Your fishing trip can be as comfortable or as rugged as you like. Many people combine staying at a warm lakeside cabin like Garden Lake Resort with an extended trip into their favorite lake. Others prefer day trips in the comfort of a heated fish house. All in all, don’t let a little cold and ice stop you from fishing all year round. Follow this link to the MN DNR site for your fishing license and information. http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/licenses/fishing/index.html?type=fishing While in Ely, try out all the local restaurants and stores for the perfect Christmas items on your list! www.gardenlakeresort.com

When visiting Ely and Garden Lake Resort, you have endless lakes to fish! The Kawishiwi River Lake Chain of Garden Lake, Farm Lake, White Iron Lake, and South Farm Lake offer some of the area’s best fishing. Walleyes, Northern Pike, Smallmouth Bass, Largemouth Bass, Black Crappies, and Bluegills are all caught on this lake chain.

Trophy fish are not uncommon and great to brag or lie about! For many years the Minnesota DNR fisheries has had an aggressive stocking program for Walleyes and slot limits for Walleyes and Northern Pike. Slot limits were set in place years ago which are now showing a difference in size and numbers of fish caught.

There is a variety of fishing styles and conditions throughout the year for the angler to enjoy. When you are fishing structure, current, reefs, shallow water and vegetation, all produce fish! You may fish areas of this lake chain that allow any size motor, limited motor or paddle only.

From our Garden Lake Resort dock, guests can get to the BWCAW via South Farm Lake and the Kawishiwi River.  Mark Ellerbroek often gives them a short tow to the mouth of the river, and from there they are able to fish and explore  the hundreds of miles of paddle-only lakes in the Boundary Waters.

Most of the time, our guests use canoes or kayaks on paddle-only lakes and rivers. But not always! One of our resort families has mastered tube fishing in northern Minnesota.  

For many years now, this family has headed to our Ely Minnesota resort for a week or two of intense fishing. Admittedly not the usual family of anglers, this group fishes morning, afternoon and night, and they do it mostly from float tubes on the paddle-only areas of the Kawishiwi River.

"Anglers fishing the lakes in the Ely vicinity and within the Boundary Waters have been rewarded with some of the best early season fishing in years!"

These words, posted on a Minnesota fishing reports site, are echoed by our Garden Lake Resort guests and others who have been out on Garden Lake and our chain lakes, White Iron, Farm and South Farm.

Spring fishing is at its best.

It is finally feeling like spring in Ely MN. This year's long cold winter has prolonged the melting of ice on Garden Lake and has given fisherman the opportunity to catch big black crappie in the west arm of Garden Lake. This is my favorite part of the lake due to virtually no homes or development. The land surrounding this beautiful bay is primarily thick pines and ledge rock.

My friend Wade and I ventured out this morning to see if we could catch enough crappie for a fish fry. It was a beautiful, sunny morning and the temperatures rose from around 28 to 55 degrees by mid day. The lack of snow on the ice made it easy for us to quickly drill several holes and start fishing.

Within the first hour, we had caught around eight fish between 9 and 12 inches. This was a good start but we knew that this bay had bigger fish. We moved several times throughout the morning and around noon, our efforts finally paid off. Wade looked at his depth finder and saw activity just above his bait. He slowly brought his line up to meet the mark on the graph. Suddenly, the bobber went down and the hook was set! Seconds later, a golden slab of a crappie came through the hole in the ice. This beautiful 15 inch crappie was the largest of the day.