Nice laker caught buy Jim Maki

[Lee Borgersen]

Nice laker caught buy Jim Maki (Great Outdoors) Ely MN.

Here's a picture of a 9lb 10oz laker Jim hooked yesterday on Burntside. He also Got another, 5lb 8oz to top off the day.


Nice fish Jim!


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[MTCOMMER]

VERY NICE FISH!   
Ive been meaning to take a trip up to Ely some winter to fish for some Lakers, SOMEDAY!

[NWMS, LLC]

Great catch!  Beats everything I've caught this winter!

[greatoutdoors]

Thanks Lee,
Only jigged for a little over two hours.
Had a good day, will give it another try next week and keep you posted.

[22lex]

I had the pleasure of meeting the man they call "The Great Outdoors" last weekend.

We were up in Ely at a GTG for lake trout fishing that I was invited by my friend to join. We stopped at the bait shop for a half and hour and Jim gave us some hands on tips to help us catch some lakers along with a couple areas to try.

Our first area that we fished (and pointed to by Jim) we only pulled up one 15" before sundown and my brother missed one half way up. Mid way through the four hour Friday of fishing, Jim swung by on what we like to call "the Sherman Tank" and hopped out to see how we were doing. After walking over to the hole and checking my jigging technique, he literally told me I was doing everything wrong  , and showed me how to intice the lakers to chase and strike by using the technique he had shown us in the baitshop. We only pulled in one 15" that night, but were ready for the next day.

Needless to say, laker fishing is nothing compared to any other hard water fishing we had done before, but the next day I pulled in two 9"ers, a 21" and a 24". These were all caught on a smaller swedish pimple tipped with Jim's magic powerbait. The urge to finess these fish was there like panfishing for us southerners, but against my better judgement (thank god) I learned to rip the bait up 10/20 feet when a mark came on the graph. The advice that Jim gave us was the difference in catching, or merely seeing fish that day.

Thanks Jim, we really appreciated you help and expertise, we WILL be coming up hopefully every winter to do this! Also thanks to the Burntside crew who also gave us a ton of great info!

Alex

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[boogityn]

I bet those trout are a hoot to pull through the ice! :fishing2:

[Lee Borgersen]

Nice Going Great Outdoors. Glad to see you taking some of our MNO brothers under your wing with your laker techniques. Since you’re the only homegrown bait shop owner in Ely I wouldn't expect anything less. Hey, Alex congrats on picking up on some new Fishing tactics. Nice photo by the way.

[greatoutdoors]

Glad to see you had a good trip, and thanks for stopping by. 
Those lakers really like to smack a lure, don't they?? 

[22lex]

Those lakers really like to smack a lure, don't they?? 

They sure do Jim. It was crazy when they realized they were hooked how fast, and how much power they had to motor back down to the bottom. On another note; I checked every fish I caught and none of them had clipped fins. Kind of surprising that they can reproduce naturally in there with all the smelt that we were marking on the flashers.

Definately an experience everyone should try, and wished we didn't live 5-1/2 hours away from.

[greatoutdoors]

I know they are catching unclipped trout, but still question how or why the lakers can reproduce naturally with all the smelt present in the lake.
I've asked the DNR this, and they  cannot explain it.
The smelt eat damn near every fish egg in the lake, and have stopped natural reproduction of all other species. (walleye, cisco, whitefish)
With the other fall spawners gone,(cisco, whitefish) the trout eggs are the only ones left for smelt to eat.
Bass and Northern are still reproducing naturally.