Saturday morning at 7AM we woke up and had ourselves a quick meal of oatmeal in a brisk 38 degrees before we headed into Ely to Voyageurs North to pick up some chubs to target pike and some portage wheels to head to our destination.

This was something new I had not done before. Rarely am I in a spot that can use portage wheels let alone use them. We had decided the night before that we would take the 1.25 mile portage from Fall Lake to Ella Hall to fish for pike. My research had told me that the pike in that lake and bass had a high growth rate and there were many in that lake. It sounded like something easy to fish for while exploring new water. I wasn't really on this trip to boil the ocean and manually portage 1.25 miles so we tried out the portage wheels. Wow did that make the trip easy! It made 1.25 miles go by in no time and by 10:30 AM we were sitting on the edge of Ella Hall ready to catch some fish!

We got on the calm glassy water with a strategy I had employed on Basswood a few years ago to have success with large pike. We essentially use a bottom bouncer and make a pike sized lindy rig equipped with a big hook and a spinner. We trolled large chubs around targeting around 19-20 ft of water and looking for bait balls. Instantly we started getting bites anytime we passed over a bait school it was furious and frequent. We were struggling actually getting the fish into the canoe though. We seemed to be losing them right at the canoe. It didn't take us long to realize when our rate of actually pulling in a fish was 1 for 5 that the pike were grabbing the back of the chub and fighting until we got close to the canoe and then letting the bait go and swimming away. I had a remedy for that I would take care of at our lunch break.......

On our way towards Ella Hall Island my wife picked up the largest largemouth of her life. A pig 5 pounder poked its head out of the water to say hello and just like that we were having a great day!

We stopped at a camp spot on the south side of the lake for lunch and had a beer and a sandwhich while I made some make-shift stinger hooks for our rigs.

Back on the water we started trolling with our new improved pike destroyers. Fish on!!! oh but it's fighting like a smallie. BOOM! a nice 3.75 pound smallie. I'll take it!

We continued to target the 19-21 ft contour and finally started hooking into the pike one after another. At one point we both doubled up on pike going over a bait ball. At some point though the Blueberry Blonde was calling my name and it was time to head back over the long portage and into town.

We made out way back through the portage running into a dad and his three sons grouse hunting. We stopped and chatted for a bit as I was curious about grouse hunting and the differences between that and going for pheasants. We wished them luck and moved on, hearing a gunshot while we moved in the opposite direction quietly hoping that they had success and found a grouse for dinner. We got through Fall Lake and again found ourselves at the brewery with a pizza at our table and a beer in our hand. Stuffed, we headed back to Fenske Lake Campground to get some shut eye.

We woke up to 32 the next morning. We brewed a cup of Joe and had a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs before we broke camp and headed for home.

It was a great short trip and I now have another, longer, fall trip in mind next year.