Garden Lake Resort Blog

Minnesota resort vacations are relaxing, rejuvenating, and refreshing. No doubt, a week or two up north in a Minnesota cabin can renew your soul. At Garden Lake Resort, a week or two at our Ely MN lodging is good for your body, too--in more ways than one. Since December 2007, we've gone green!

Green

The term green is used to describe efforts and actions that are safe and beneficial to our environment. For us at Garden Lake Resort, green means using natural, non-toxic cleaning products and energy efficient appliances. Green means being aware of our habits and inviting our guests to be aware of theirs, too. Green means doing our part to ensure the pristine wilderness environment we love remains preserved for generations to come.

"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.

One of the things our guests like best about staying at our Ely Minnesota resort is our nightly campfires.

It's our ritual. As day gives way to night, we gather around the fire ring that's centrally located behind our cabins. There is a time and place for serious conversation, but it's not when we're sitting around the campfire! Then it's a time for stories and sometimes skits and almost always s'mores. On occasion, Mark and friends will bring out the guitars and the singing begins.  

Campfires give us the opportunity to unwind and unplug. Without the distractions of TVs and DVDs and cell phones and iPods, we're free to focus on the friends and family who have gathered with us around the fire, and the fire itself. We tell stories about fishing and hiking and trips to town that are enlivened by the giddiness we feel from the joy of being around the fire. How often in our everyday lives do we tend to the preparation of food the way we do to the roasting of a marshmallow over an open fire? We carefully chose just the right spot over just the right color flame to toast our marshmallow to just the right shade of brown (or black for some!).  Even the very young guests staying in our Ely cabins can participate, to their delight. As the darkness of the night deepens, our voices become hushed. Our conversation dies down, as do the fire's flames. By then, we're entranced by the colors of the glowing embers. This is why our guests choose our Ely Minnesota lodging.  Up here, the fishing's always fine and the air is always fresh, but it's the fellowship around the campfire that calls us home.

For we who love to fish, thoughts of spring begin before Opener and even before March 21. They begin in mid February, or sometimes late January, when we begin to inventory our tackle boxes and dog-ear pages of Cabela's and other sports equipment catalogs. Long before ice is out, we spend hours trolling through In-Fisherman articles for tips and contemplating rigs and jigs.

Then Opener comes. . .

At Garden Lake Resort this spring, we've heard many people say the fishing has never been better. On Garden Lake and our chain of lakes, walleye, northern, and bass are active, aggressive, and biting.  In Ely, the talk about town is of minnows and lures and limits--lots of talk of people getting their limits. And then, of course, there's talk, too, of batter and butter and seasonings.

One of the first things guests do when they arrive at Garden Lake Resort--sometimes even before they check-in at the office--is head to the lake.

They may stand on the dock, sigh deeply, and scan the tea-colored water, making their plans. Or--especially if they're young--they may lie flat on their stomachs on the dock and run their fingers through the water. Sometimes, no matter their age, they kick off their shoes or sandals and stick in a toe. They look beyond their reflections on the water's surface, searching for minnows or pan fish, or crayfish or turtles swimming below. They may skip a rock or two from the shore of our sand beach. Or, they may grab a stick, trying to gauge the depth of the water or pretending to cast.

Reluctantly, they pull away from the lake to check-in and unpack. But soon they're back by the lake with bathing suits on or gear in hand. They may go in the water, or lie beside the water, or go out on the water. Regardless, they head to the lake.

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.