Hello everyone, this June I'll be taking a trip to the Number chain. I hope to do some fishing for walleye and pike. It's been over a decade since I was on these lakes. My uncle brought frozen smelt for us to use as bait for the pike. Do outfitters in Ely normally carry them? It seemed easier than dealing with live bait. Thanks!

Jason

for pike u really dont need live bait, IMO
use soft plastics, spoons, even spinner baits and crankbaits for them. they hit everything! lol for me a 4" fluke minnow unweighted is a go to for action from a variety of fish when paddlecasitin' round'

I cant speak for that particular lake but generally by that time of the year you will be better off with an artificial presentation. Usually I am done dead bait fishing by the beginning or middle of may.

Now that you mention it, we were there in mid May. I just like the idea of throwing out a tennis ball sized bobber and watching it being pulled under. I'll bring some spoons and Rapalas if bait isn't the way to go in the summer.

We used to fish with smelt as well. I am not sure where you can legally find them anymore due to disease. Sometimes you can find Ciscoes, but they are tough to find too.

T

smelt is easy to find in my neck of the woods year around, You can also buy bait smelt on line. I would call the bait shops in Ely and check what they stock in June. I would sure have some red & white spoons and mepps spinners with also I like the #5 black fury for pike. Last summer I was using leaches catching bluegills and couldn't keep the pike away I was using light tackle and they would cut me off 9 out of 10 times, but just saying they like the leaches also, and the leaches are easy to keep.

I have bobber fished for pike with a sucker minnow for many years and have done well enough to keep doing it. The problem with bringing them into the bwca is keeping them alive. I have never used frozen bait in the summer but for ice fishing it works quite well.

I have played around quite a bit with fresh dead bait.........butterflying spent creek chubs and fishing them on jigs has been a winner catching a wide variety of fish from walleye to sheepshead to catfish. I to have thought about fresh bait for pike, both live and dead. I oft wondered how a big slab of "filet of fish"would work still fished on the bottom with a quick strike rig. Something would eat it.......first a crowd of crayfish start working and then a bunch of small fish get interested and pick away and then Mr Big comes along wondering what all the excitement is ("hey gimme that, its mine"). Works great in salt water. I bet it would work in fresh water too but its just one of those things that nobody tries. Just have to hope that "Mr. Big" isn't a fat snapping turtle. I once hooked a very big soft-shell turtle night fishing with liver. Tangled all my lines and took at least 20 minutes to get in.....Soft shells swim fast.....I thought I had a REAL whopper catfish on. I cut the line after I seen what it was and was so disgusted and disappointed I went home.

When I was a kid we used to catch perch and hook them near the anal fin and toss them about. Pull on them and they turn upside down.......Largemouth which were normally hard to catch in the hard fished clear urban lakes ate them readily.

Here in Florida I watched a guy after a cold snap use a fly rod to catch a bluegill and then quickly transfer the gill to a heavy outfit. He would toss the gill up at the base of a dam and was getting a nice bass on every cast. I watched as they took every bass and deposited them into a cooler in their van. I was very irritated and if I had cell service I would of called the conservation officers. They were loading up and abusing a vulnerable resource (the bass were stacked in the only deep water around).

FWIW........use the smallest bobber possible which will still float your bait if bobber fishing.