Anybody Fished Big Lake (St Louis Co.)?

[C-130 Herk]

I'm headed up to Big Lake (25 mi. NW of Ely) 14-22 Jun and wondered if anybody had any experience on the lake. My first time.

thanks,

[tedl]

I fished it some last Oct. and had some success. One thing you really have to watch out for is big rocks just under the surface!!!! I was getting ready to move and started to go and put my boat up on one and had to get out to dislodge it from the rock.

[C-130 Herk]

Appreciate the advice. I pretty much assumed that might be the case when I saw how shallow it is (deepest 22' with average of 15' over the lake). Taking my Lund 17' with 60 Yamaha and 10 Johnson. Guess I won't bother putting a new prop on the Yamaha.

[Fishinguy40]

I fished it a couple summers ago. It's nice and quiet up there. Great if you like the wilderness fishing experience without having to go into the BWCA.

Like ted said watch out for the rocks. If they are marked it will only be a milk jug that a resort owner put out. There are some reefs that are great for fishing. One piece of advice, if you fish the reefs by an area they call "the narrows" watch out. I lost two anchors.

We dropped anchor to do some jigging. Pulled in a few walleyes but when it came time to pull up anchor it was stuck hard. Had to cut the rope. Borrowed an anchor from the resort owner to fish the same spot later in the day and the same thing happened.

You will see very sharp drops like rock towers on your sonar in the area. Great for fishing but hard on equipment.

[C-130 Herk]

Thanks guys. Have always done well slow trolling floating jig heads tipped with small leeches on Leech, Vermillion, and others. Might have to change tactics a bit and go with mostly jigging on the windward sides and dropp offs. Would lose lots of gear on the rocks trolling something that bounces off the bottom.

Water should still be fairly cool by the second week in June, but should warm up fast since the lake is so shallow. Will definitely watch out for the rocks (no high-speed stuff -- not many eyes caught that way anyhow).