Since the BWCA is closed I'm going have to fish lakes in the Ely area not in the Boundary Waters. What are the best lakes in the Ely area to look for smallmouth? Thanks for sharing!

Little Long Lake has some huge smallmouth.

Yes little long gets a vote in my book.
Shagawa and Burntside have produced for me.
The non bwca side of moose lake has been good for me .

Vermillion is the best smallmouth fishery in the area, but can be intimidating in a canoe with all of that big water. Maybe head up the echo and check out the vermillion river. I've never fished it but heard it holds smallmouth. There are monster smallies in Burntside, too, but harder to find.

Eagle nest chain of lakes for meduim size SM

Bass Lake. It has both large and small mouth. I’d also consider Big, Fenske, Low, if you’re looking for less obvious lakes.

Little Long or Fenske

I've never fished Fenski. The book says not many walleye but is bass good

I think Vermillion will be my next quest.
By boat and state park.
But don't tell anyone I want the place by my self.

yogi59weedr: "I think Vermillion will be my next quest.
By boat and state park.
But don't tell anyone I want the place by my self."

After getting cancelled on our trip a couple weeks ago due to fires in and around ely, we went to Vermillion.

Yea, Vermillion has a ton of smallies, but we could not find anything over 2lbs. We caught prob 15-20 a day, but nothing of size.

We tried all kinds of stuff......shallow, shallow docks. Deeper Docks. Deep points in 15-30 ft. Shallow side reefs, Deeper reefs.......Everything.

I took up my Helix 10 with Side Imaging and could fine all kinds of good stuff with some fish but could not get them to eat.

We also found about 8 billion suspended fish, and I suspect that was the biggest issue.

Oh well, it was STILL pretty dang fun.

Later,

Geo

If you only have a day, try fishing Triangle Lake. I’ve done well there with Smallmouth including my personal best 6.61 lbs. Good luck to you!

Cats out of the bag now.