I am going to answer two questions here. First in response to your question about outfitters based in Ely. We used Tom & Woods Outfitters which is based on Moose Lake east of ely. They can provide you with a partial or full outfitting. They have rooms available on site so you can spend the evening there before you leave for your trip in the morning after they serve you breakfast. Plus if you like they can haul your gear via motor boat to Praire Portage or to Washington Island on Basswood. They are the only outfitter we have use over the past few years and I could not tell you what the other's offer.

Last fall we did a fly-in from Moose to Lac La Croix and paddled back to Moose. Our route was Lac LA Croix, McAree, Iron, Crooked, Roland, Darky, Brent, McIntyre, Sarah, Isabella, North Bay, Basswood, Wind and then Moose. The fishing was great from Lac La Croix to Iron. Brent was good and we did a day trip to Tuck (west of Sarah) which turned out to be great for small mouth. With due respect, if it wasn't for the bad winds during our trip we probably would have had excellant fishing on all of the lakes. We just couldn't hold our position long before the wind pushed us all over the place so we trolled most of the time.
The 2 lures that produced the most fish during that trip was a all silver Rat-L-Trap and a gold Vibrex. The Vibrex was a surprise because it just looks so plain. A hook, metal body and a spinning blade. We caught mostly Small Mouth and Northern which were biting so fast that by the time you casted and started to paddle the canoe you had a fish on. We caught a few walleye but nothing to talk about. The other choice for a lure That I would suggest would be the Rapala's. Both deep divers and medium depth ones. GOOD LUCK!!!!!

Posted by Mark on December 19, 1999 at 11:53