The fuel feeding all those species is a healthy forage base of dwarf ciscoes and yellow perch.

“There’s also a good shiner population, and when you have that type of a base, it’s usually a good place to tip a jig with a shiner,” Neustrom said.

A shiner on a jig is the bread and butter of anglers on Deer, but later in the season, live-bait rigs and leeches can also turn on the fish.

“There’s a few sunken islands on the east side in the middle of the lake with weeds topping off at 14 to 18 feet that can give up lots of walleyes in May, June and July,” he said.

All the points hold fish and Neustrom said it’s tough to go wrong with any of them. Just find one that doesn’t have another boat on it and give it a whirl. Deer Lake has one public access on the southwest part of the lake with parking for 20 vehicles.

VERMILION RANGE
The Vermilion Range stretches 23 miles between Tower and Ely connected by highways 169 and 1. One of the popular draws to this area is the Soudan Underground Mine State Park featuring a rail car ride that descends 2,341 feet underground.

Readers may be surprised that the famous Lake Vermilion is not included in this article, but so much has been written about this multispecies haven we decided to leave it out in order to focus on a few of the area’s other top choices. These lakes aren’t as heavily fished as Vermilion, although the fishing is just as good if not better.

Anglers looking to spend some time on Vermilion Range lakes may contact the Ely Chamber of Commerce at (800) 777-7281 or online at www.ely.org , or the Lake Vermilion Resort Association at (800) 648-5897 or www.lakevermilionresorts.com . For angling information, contact Jim Orcutt at (218) 349-3658 or online at www.jimthefishguy.com .

SHAGAWA LAKE
The town of Ely is a popular destination for visitors to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area or Canada, but one of the best walleye lakes in the state is adjacent to this bustling summer village.

Jim “The Fish Guy” Orcutt, a top guide and angler on the Professional Walleye Trail competition, loves walleye fishing on Shagawa.

“It’s probably one of the better lakes to fish for walleyes and DNR test netting showed about 30 walleyes per net. Personally, we’ve had days where we’ll catch 40 to 50 walleyes,” Orcutt said.

One of Orcutt’s favorite parts of Shagawa is that it’s close and convenient to Ely while having plenty of areas where there aren’t any cabins giving it the true “upnorth” feel.

Shagawa is full of structure, a great place for a professional angler to hone his skills, because you can find fish all over the lake and catch them in a variety of ways. That’s even better for those of us who consider ourselves among the amateur and novice rankings.

One thing Orcutt has noticed about Shagawa is that the early-season haunts utilized by walleyes have shifted.

“The opening weekend fish have begun locating themselves deeper,” he said. “Although a lot of people are leery of fishing deeper that early on, you can find them down to 20 feet.”

Throughout the summer, the walleyes continued to shift to deeper waters.

“I never fished deeper than 15 feet two summers ago and I don’t think I fished shallower than 20 feet last summer,” he added.