Best lures and lakes ?? BWCA

My Daughter is Taking me to the BWCA on another Canoe trip.

This trip we are looking for better fishing lakes

What are some favorite casting lures and Good lakes?

Dad, uncle, brother and I canoed into Crooked Lake (Friday Bay) back in the mid 90's, fished walleye and small mouth. Pretty much all we took were hooks and sinkers....and 5lbs. of leaches. The Fishing was outstanding but we lost lots of hooks to northerns.

Been a long time but went up there about 10 years in a row with students in late 70’s early 80’s. Had to finally stop going when school said too much liability for that trip. My students and I had the time of our life. Best fishing was with leaches on slip bobbers. Top water lures for bass, spoons for northern. I think we were boated across moose lake ( bad lake to canoe since it is huge) and portages into Ensign lake ( I think) and set up a base camp ( points are best camping spots in my opinion. Breezes help keep mosquitos down and bears only have one direction to come in.

Spinner baits,top water walk the dog,spoon's #5&7 crank baits and dont forget jig's for still fishing pink,white and yellow you and your daughter should have a great time.It's been about 15 years since I did my 3 day trip over there.

330, as for lures I would bring a swallow running plastic body bait (whatever brand you're a fan of) a count down style plastic body bait, a shad rap style of plastic body bait and STEEL LEADERS..

I'm planning on DT 4 fat raps for sure

I guided fishing trips on the BWCA back in 1983 out of Grand Marais and I can recommend some great lakes if you're going to that part of the boundary waters. Only went to the BWCA out of Ely once so I couldn't give you much on that area of the boundary waters.

Depends on species you want to target and time of year you're planning on making your trip as to which lakes and/or lures you'd want to use.

Spro Rat swimbait. Bass love them as do big pike.

WS

Small topwater baits and spinnerbaits for smallmouth. Crankbaits (Shad Raps are great) and jigs with leeches for walleyes. Anything you have too much of in your tackle box for pike. As mentioned above, different lakes are great for different species. In my experience, the farther in you're willing to paddle and portage, the better the fishing will be.

First thing you need to do is check out all the info at:www.bwca.com

Everything you need to know is there, unless you already have your entry permit where you go fishing could be affected by what permits are available for when you go. Each entry point has a daily limit and some are already gone for year. I would advise against Ensign lake as it is heavily used anymore and some sites have bear problems.

I've taken a tow across Moose to the portage ( more like a hump ) to Birch and paddled to the portages on Carp-Melon-Seed then the longer portage to Knife. This is the border route the Voyagers used in the fur trade days. Paddle to the South Arm of Knife and make a base camp. You can do this in a day easy if you get the first tow of the morning. South arm of Knife has some really good fishing.

Going the other way out of Moose can get you to Basswood which is a huge lake but the smallmouth fishing was incredible and caught walleye over 7 pounds. We weren't that far into Basswood from the portage either.

Seems the fishing has changed quite abit from years ago. The last 4 times I've been there (different lakes) in the last 3 years I've had terrible fishing luck. There are 4 lakes about 2 miles along the 4 mile portage out of Fall lake that are full of northerns. I had to resort to those lakes the last time I was up there just over a year ago. Good luck.

We might be leaving out of Grand Marias...my daughter & Son in law are planning our Route. With my assistance

Jigs, spoons, and crankbaits for throwing out behind the canoe. You can catch just about everything with those essentials.

When are you going? My favorite changes every time I go. Was on Stuart and iron last spring and walleye hit anything you cast. I caught some on flies in 8 fow. Caught some nice pike as well. In the summer, I went to big moose and stayed a week hammering smallmouth with some giants. Best they hit that week was rattle traps in dull colors. I remove the hooks, run the line through the eye and thru the rear hook eye and tie on the hook. It lets the bait slide up the line when they jump. Helps with hook throws, don’t tear up their face or mouth, and much easier and safer to release.

Fall, I went in on baker #39 and went all the way up to north temperance. Couldnt buy a bite till south temperance. It was still slow but I caught one good walleye, and the rest were small. I tried trolling, jigging, drifting, bottom fishing, you name it. Very tough. Seen four moose starting at Peterson and on north.

It was cold and rainy that week in October so probably slower everywhere. I couldn’t go till June first this year but I’m going back to Stuart for a couple days. I have a pma permit starting the third so I’m gonna camp on sterling for 3 days and then who knows. I may go east toward bear trap or backtrack to Stuart and go Northrop iron. I have 10 days. Seriously, I’ve caught fish on literally everytng. Just a matter of finding them. A lot of those lakes are featureless. Like a big bathtub. I like to troll crank baits to find fish and then I just keep drifting over that spot jigging. You may have to add weight to get trolled baits deep enough.

The later in he year, the deeper they are. I want to take some live bait but that trip to the Stuart river is a bear. Not to mention how tough it could be in the pma. Every time I go in summer, the flies have been brutal. I try to camp on a point where there’s wind in my face and it seemed to help. I also carry a screen house to sleep in. Last summer I had it draped over my boat while I drifted. Well worth 15 bucks and weighs almost nothing. I want to target Lakers and go soon after ice out. I been told they can be found in shallow till it starts warming up.

This is solid advice. If I could take only one lure it would be a spoon.

Thanks for all the Great advice so far!

With regulations constantly changing you'll want to look up site specific regs. Last I heard Lake Saganaga(AKA Big Sag), the lake I did most of my guiding on, has reduced the limit of walleyes to 2 per day. Not sure of size or slot though. Many of the smaller lakes, in that part of the BWCA, seem to have one or two dominant species. So you may want to make a circle route and hit several different lakes for several different species. Let me know if you're headed up to that part of the BWCA and I'll be happy to help you with what I can.

Texas rigged Beaver baits, Dirty Jig jigs, weightless zoom super flukes, Pepper baits Spinner baits etc drop shots etc

Zoom Super Chunk Behind jigs etc

I went in June a few years ago to Malberg Lake. Fished narrow spots and flows in and out of lakes. Smallmouth hit everything. For walleye we used leeches on slip bobbers and Rapalas. Pike hit Rapalas and jitterbugs.

Have You been to The BWCA?

What screen house are you referring to?

Shanemoss, what bug tent are you using? And where'd you get it?

They sell smaller ones also.

So you just drape it over your sleeping bag too?

Thanks A lot !!

No, I use a hammock with a net on it already, or my single backpacking tent/bivy. I hang it near the fire and keep my chair and gear in it. Depends on where I’m at, but sometimes I hang it near the water so I can chill out and watch my poles. I carry one on every trip I take and just keep one in all my packs. Skeeters don’t bother me. I only actually use it when the flies are out bad. Last summer on big moose lake, black flies were horrible. I threw that thing over us in the canoe and held it up and open with fishing poles and a limb from shore. Sure made it peaceful drifting that big lake.

It was sure busy this past year. My boy and I went through Kawishwa and the lady lake chain. The guy working said it was the busiest he had ever seen it. Probably due to the china virus.
That was a tough route for this codger,.been awhile,packed way to much!
Have you thought about the Mcfarland to pine and caribou. Leeches under a slip bobber,..floating rapalas with small rubber core,.a few shad raps of various sizes,.good for canoeing and casting, Good luck

It was the busiest I’ve seen it. The rangers said the same and were (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) about all the law breakers trashing things up and chopping trees down. I chose Stuart lake because of how tough it can be to reach. 1-1/2 mile portage from the parking lot deters some folks and then I think there are 7 more portages that ain’t much fun. I stayed 3 days with only two campers before I headed to iron lake. Seen a few up there as well. I stayed at Stuart again on my way out and I got the last available site right at dark.

That’s the reason I reserved a pma permit. Only one permit at a time will assure solitude if you get in far enough to hold back day trippers. Where I’m going looks like a tough go after the first lake where the no trail portage begins. According to dnr, should be tons of walleye and all mine for four days until my pma permit expires and I have to get out and back to the regular bwca. After reading the above post it reminded me of shad raps. Deep diving shad raps were killer fishing from shore. I find a long shore or beach and beach my canoe and walk the shore slinging shad raps. I caught some of the biggest perch I ever caught doing that. Pike love them to. Only color shad raps I own are fire tiger so I can’t advise any other colors than that. I fish spoons a lot and I can say without a doubt....for me anyway....that the red and white daredevil will get more hits than fire tiger or any other colors I’ve used.

Would you recommend the Dive to lures? DT10', DT16' etc... right now I have all DT 4's

Haven't been in since 2013 and have been to basswood 10+ times on a motor boat permit, used jigs and leeches or straight hook and split shot with leech, never used artificial baitt. Time of year I've been in was memorial weekend to late September, some trips we caught 100 walleyes a day, some trips we had to grind it out for a meal. Caught sumo small jaws and 40" northerns also. Once they went to a lottery for permits for that entry point, I quit going

Berkley power bait, caught about anything we fished for.

Netting as stated above is a must, depending on time of year. You'll wish for mosquitos if you get into an area with black flies (very common in August in the BWCA). If you just rely on spray, you may be sorry. Just a simple head net can save you some misery. And netting weights nothing.

I bought a couple head nets^^^

We went in August last year.... zero bugs of any kind. We were blessed

This year its June 8 going in

I'm ordering a draper net for over my sleeping bag also