Fishin Ely

[snowlady]

Where's the best place to get bait in the Ely area

[ThinIce2006]

The best place hands down this year is Babes bait on the west end of Ely. They've gone way out to stock up for the season. The best part is they are almost always there.

[Steve Foss]

Hey snowlady and thinice, glad to have you on FM. Welcome.

Snowlady, I'm assuming you mean to ice fish, not wait until summer. There are fewer bait stores open here in winter, as one would expect. Here they are, in order as you drive along Hwy. 169 (Sheridan Street) through town from west to east, assuming you're coming from Virginia/Tower.

The best? Well, it definitely used to be Babe's, when the former owners trapped a lot of their own bait, but now most, if not all, the bait stores in town get their stuff from the same wholesaler. Babe's is still very good, and the new owners are great people. On the left at the west edge of town as you come in Hwy. 169.

Great Outdoors also is good. That's on the north side of Sheridan just as you're coming down the hill after the third stoplight as you head east through town.

If Babe's or GO isn't open, which happens sometimes, the bait store with the longest hours in Ely is the Lucky 7 C store, about half way through town on the south side of Sheridan. Lucky 7 has good bait, though it's hit or miss whether you get to talk to an angler there when you buy your bait. I bought rainbows there today, and both the avid anglers were working, so we had a good talk. Then I went and caught several 'eyes on Shagawa during the evening bite.

Skube's also has very good bait, and that's almost all the way through town on the main drag on the south side, across from the Phillips 66 gas/C store. In years past, you never really knew if Skube's would be open, but that's changed, and now that there's ice, there's bait.