Ely MN Wildflower Report for June 2005

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Purple Violet among the Birch, Photo by Erik W. L. Anderson

June 10th-11th, 2005

Ely Wildflower Report by Erik and Kimberly Anderson

We enjoyed a weekend stay on the Farm Lake at Timber Trail Lodge, just a few miles from Ely off the Kawishiwi Trail. Farm Lake (BWCA Entry Point 31) is part of a chain of four lakes including Farm, South Farm, Garden and White Iron Lakes. Our stay was a rainy stay, but we still found breaks in the rain to give a try at Timber Trail's free paddleboat for guests and enjoy their small beach. I took a long journey along an abandoned road across the Kawishiwi from Timber Trail and traveled back through the woods several bogs. The overcast skies and misting rain brought out the deep colors of the flowers and gave a dew touched look. My favorite of the trip was the Blue Bead Lilies that were so abundant.

Blackberry

Blue Bead Lily (Clintonia)

Bunchberry

Buttercups, Yellow

Ginger, Wild

Hawkweed, Orange

Hawkweed, Yellow

Lily-of-the-Valley, Wild

Lupine

Marsh Marigold (Cowslip)

Rose. Wild

Vetch, Purple & White

Violet, Purple

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Ely Fishing Report, Voyageur North, June 5th

It has been raining quite a bit around here and that means water levels are even higher than they were on fishing opener weekend. This has made some of the canoe routes a bit easier on rivers & streams. But it meant it was harder to fish. Until last week that is! We all knew the fishing was going to pick up sometime and last week was that time.

The weather finally started cooperating and the 12 lb 10 oz walleye caught last week was proof of that!

WALLEYES

Brad Knope of Shawano WI was using a leech and a jig and found this monster in Little Long Lake.

The next big walleye was caught by Richard Lasch of South Bend IN and he hooked into a 9 lb 10 oz walleye from the Burntside Lake area. Rich was using a chub minnow.

Ely's local lake, Shagawa, produced a nice 6 lb 6 oz walleye for Keith Appleberry. Keith is from the Ely area.

Another 6 lb walleye was caught by Dale Woodard of Deer River. Dale used a rainbow chub for his trophy.

NORTHERN PIKE

Northern pike have been hungry for minnows according to the fishermen who registered them last week.

The top pike of the week was a 19 lb 8 oz, 44 inches long caught by PJ White of Aurora IL and he found this one in Burntside Lake.

Close behind was a 19 lb 2 oz pike found in Birch Lake by Bill James of Hill City MN. Bill caught this one on a crappie minnow. And Bill was fishing for crappie, 4 lb test with an ultra light rod! Our hats off to Bill and the skill it must have taken to get this lunker into his boat with that weight gear!

Cory Lundeen from Harris MN was fishing with a pink plastic worm when a 16 lb pike hit his line. His fish came out of Vermilion Lake.

SMALLMOUTH BASS

Smallies are hitting hard right now. Paul Spirake of Cicero IL found this out when he caught a 5 lb 10 oz bass right in back of Ely, in Shagawa Lake. Paul was using a jig & minnow.

Pat Neurer of Ely was also using a minnow, a rainbow chub, when he caught a 2 lb 5 oz bass also from Shagawa Lake.

The Marcotte family from Tinley Park, IL was up on Pipestone Lake this week and were catching some monster smallies there. None were brought in but they had a DeLiar scale and one hit the scale at 8 lbs and another right around 7 pounds! Most of the other smallies were in the two to four pound range.

Be sure to stop back throughout the Spring and Summer to see our weekly wildflower reports from Lorraine Anderson of Grand Marais, Minnesota.