I have read all the talk about the early ice out but continued cool weather thru the spring.

Heading in to Lizz/Swamp this week and its projecting low highs in the low 50's, and lows in the low 40's. At those temps, I doubt the water will be heating up very well.

I guess my plan to catch big northerns will be to fish the inlets in the morning, the outlets in the afternoon, and wherever the wind blows us and the warmer water and fish some waking lures or subsurface lures slowly. Xraps maybe.

For walleye, of course I will pick up some leeches, but probably a white or green mister twisters in 8-15' depths near shallow water, fished slow, will probably be the ticket.

Any ideas?

Longer range looks like it's finally a warm up. Finally

Hoping my trip on the 24th is at least out of the 20's/30's at night

Looks like there will be some warm weather all week on the Ely side. Mid 60's throughout the remaining of the week.

It's going to warm up- but another record low in Hibbing this AM of 22F. I-Falls is also 1F off a record as I type.. (22F)
Both have databases back 75+ years, so imo, even with rather early ice out, the water has not warmed much compared too other years with normal to slightly late ice out. The first 10 days of May are running near -5.0F compared to avg. That's cold- even after a slightly warm April- in fact this has mitigated any warming since late April and turned the last month (30 days or so) nearly -7.0F compared to avg. that's a big deal.
I'd expect fish to be in "normal" spots after a normal ice out for this weekend.
But a few days of real warm can change that quick. That's not in the cards until maybe a week from now. I'd love to be up there when the warmth really comes- say 2 weeks from now as it should be really turning on. If one has ever spent time in the BW in the Spring on a long trip- when the bugs come out in force from little or nothing - and I mean that day- the fishing really picks up. Been there done that. The avg high in Ely this weekend is near 68F. It's going to take several days of above avg temps to get things rolling after this cold snap imo.

OMGitsKa: "Looks like there will be some warm weather all week on the Ely side. Mid 60's throughout the remaining of the week. "

That seems to be in the Rockwood area as well. The forecast they are posting is better than the one from Grand Marias. I think mid-60s will make for good fishing in the afternoons and evenings. The forecast says southeast and southwest winds so we will fish the northern shorelines.

https://www.weatherforyou.com/reports/index.php?pands=hungry+jack+lake%2Cminnesota

I am pretty happy to read this forecast.

Skip the leeches. Water will b too cool. Go w minnows.

allforfreeforall: "Skip the leeches. Water will b too cool. Go w minnows."

I've been told that many springs. I have always still had good success with leeches.

But.. a bigger issue for me is that I simply can NOT keep minnows alive. I have tried several times and wound up with all my minnows dead on the first day. So whether they work as well or not, I'll stick with leeches.