Wondering if frozen bait such as Ciscoes are available in Ely? As I recall, a while back, there was big ordeal with them being obtained illegally or what not. I recall hearing some interesting stories from Jim at TGO before he sold the store and passed away. Wondering if there are any available or if I should be on the hunt for some frozen suckers instead.

You can probably find frozen smelt, but frozen ciscoes are illegal in MN now I believe. Minnesota DNR has info on using dead bait here.

Yes call 1 800 FBI.

pick up some suckers from your local bait store and freeze them , i do this for every BW trip and they work just as good if not better than ciscoes i layer them in a 6-pack type cooler and have deadbait for the whole trip, tucks under a canoe seat nicely.

shock: "pick up some suckers from your local bait store and freeze them , i do this for every BW trip and they work just as good if not better than ciscoes i layer them in a 6-pack type cooler and have deadbait for the whole trip, tucks under a canoe seat nicely."

I was going to probably do this. I have seen you post about this before and think it is a great idea.

As far as Ciscoes being illegal in Minnesota, they are only illegal if they are not VHS tested. I had gotten some from Jim at TGO back when he was around that were certified VHS free back when VHS started to become a thing. Anyway, probably just going to be easiest to freeze some sucker minnows like Shock suggested.

Canoe Dude: "

shock: "pick up some suckers from your local bait store and freeze them , i do this for every BW trip and they work just as good if not better than ciscoes i layer them in a 6-pack type cooler and have deadbait for the whole trip, tucks under a canoe seat nicely."

I was going to probably do this. I have seen you post about this before and think it is a great idea.


As far as Ciscoes being illegal in Minnesota, they are only illegal if they are not VHS tested. I had gotten some from Jim at TGO back when he was around that were certified VHS free back when VHS started to become a thing. Anyway, probably just going to be easiest to freeze some sucker minnows like Shock suggested."

My impression is that there is nobody supplying vhs-free frozen Cisco in Minnesota anymore. Love to be wrong.

And I’m not going to wade into the TGO debacle or the ongoing international investigation into another outfitter up there…