First day for ice pike

[Steve Foss]

Fished Birch Lake, one of the best big pike lakes around, especially now that they have the protected 24-36 inch slot. Any flag you get on Birch could be a 20 pounder.

Fished in 10 FOW. Most locals fish farther up the bay in shallower water for pike, but I prefer the deeper stretch where three islands sit across the mouth of they bay. The islands for neck downs and concentrate traveling fish, and it's a good walleye spot in the evening.

Temp was at or above freezing, cloudy, light east wind. Rain started after noon.

Fished from 9 to 4 p.m., with tip-ups from 9 to 2:30 and for 'eyes after that. Rain got me nervous, so I left before the walleyes started hitting. Four or five inches of great ice until the rain and warm hit.

Had 28 flags, all on dead cisco suspended a couple feet above bottom. Landed 15 pike, from 21 to 32 inches. Four at 30 inches or better. Only four fish were below the slot limit. Brought home three for pike fingers. Mmmmmm.

[Random guy]

Sounds like a pretty good time! When the pike keep you running for flags it doesn't get much better for on ice fun.

[Doop]

Where is Birch Lake? I wouldn't mind giving this a try. I'm driving up from Dallas, TX and wanted to take a day trip with my best friend...we were looking for a good pike lake to do some tip uppin! Can you help?

[Steve Foss]

Birch Lake is between Babbitt and Ely. The place I fish most, Kramer Bay, is accessed by coming east into Babbitt on St. Louis County Highway 21.

Shoot, if you're coming from Dallas, head north on I-35, which ends in Duluth. In Duluth, take U.S. 53 north toward Virginia. A few miles north of Virginia, take Hwy. 169 east (it's marked with signs for Ely, Babbitt and Embarrass). From there, you've got options, but the simplest way to go without confusion is to head all the way to Ely, and then take a right in Ely at Central Avenue. You'll be on Hwy 21 (Central Ave within the Ely city limits), heading south toward Babbitt. After about 15 miles, you'll hit a T. Take a left like you're going into Babbitt, but before you actually get to town, turn north (left) on Country Club Road (marked by a standard green street sign), and take the road all the way to the public landing on Kramer Bay. Don't drive fast. It's a slippery road and there are a couple of deceptive turns. From the landing, walk out a couple hundred yards straight off the access until you're between and past the two closest islands. Walk until you hit 10 to 12 feet of water. Not that far past the islands. Set your tipups anywhere in there, and if you want to stay for the late afternoon/evening walleye bite, pull the tipups and start jigging for walleyes around 3 p.m.

Birch yields up good numbers of 20s and bigger each year, though not all are reported at area bait stores. It used to be even better, but killing all those big girls for all those years took its toll. There's a protected slot for Birch pike. All pike from 24 to 36 inches must be immediately released. It's only been on a couple years, but I think it's making a difference. It'll be quite a few years until Birch is back where it was, but you've seen in my initial post that productivity is excellent, size is good, and any flag could be a 20. My best on Birch was two winters ago, a fat 39-incher I figured went 17 to 18 pounds.

Birch is also an excellent walleye fishery.

You won't be the only Texan around. If you run into Brian Brown of Brown Electric, you'll find a fellow Texas $hitkicker.

Good luck.