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Author Topic: Boundry Waters Canoeing trip  (Read 8110 times)

WackyWalleye

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Boundry Waters Canoeing trip
« on: Mar 29, 2012, 11:03 AM »
In late June I will be taking a canoeing/ hiking trip with my church group in the northern MN ;D boundry waters,and I would really love to have some successful fishing while I'm there. I am from North Eastern South Dakota and I have only heard rumors about how nice your lakes are. I mainly fish walleyes and pike in the summer with the occasional perch pond trip. I was just wondering if you guys would have any suggestions as far as lures and tactics are concerned. I would love to catch a couple bucket mouth bass, because they are hard to find close to home. Thanks for all your help guys, and may your lines be tight this summer!! ;D
If it was guaranteed they would call it catching, not fishing!

slamber

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Re: Boundry Waters Canoeing trip
« Reply #1 on: Mar 29, 2012, 11:39 AM »
Lucky guy! The BWCA/Quetico is one of my favorite areas in the country. I havn't been there in about 10 years but when I was younger I spent a lot of time up there. Your first step is to figure out what species are in the lakes you'll be on. Northerns and Walleye are in almost everything; lakers are in some; smallmouth are in a lot, largemouth are in a few; browns, rainbows and brookies are in a few. There's a good guide book that i bought years ago that lists all the lakes and the resident species; for the fisherman it's a huge help. The newer version is on Amazon, "The New Boundary Waters and Quetico Fishing Guide". For smallmouth I always did well throwing small in-line spinners (white w/ silver seemed to be best) or jigs tipped with curly tail/chunk of crawler. I don't remember ever catching a large mouth up there. Good luck and have fun.

WackyWalleye

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Re: Boundry Waters Canoeing trip
« Reply #2 on: Mar 29, 2012, 01:47 PM »
My buddy who went on this trip said that they caught small mouths, walleyes, and pike. We will be traveling a lot so live bait is out of the picture. I have yo keep the tackle to a minimum so I am looking for something that will work on multiple species. I will have to try and find the route we are taking and all the bodies of water we will be on. Thanks for the reply, keep them coming!!
If it was guaranteed they would call it catching, not fishing!

DIRTBALL2

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Re: Boundry Waters Canoeing trip
« Reply #3 on: Mar 30, 2012, 10:44 AM »
If you want to be absolutely certain of your success on this trip, you might want to consider hiring me as your personal fishing coach/guide! Out of the goodness of my heart, I won't even charge you for my service's! :w00t: :rotflol: Sorry WW! Just having a little fun at your expense! Mostly because I'm so jealous of you going on such a fabulous trip! I started going into the BWCA at the tender age of 20 and now I am an Auld Phart of 74! In my humble opinion, there is no greater place to go! The first thing I would recommend that you get is one of those clamp on rod holder's.  Since you will be doing a lot of paddling, this will enable you to keep on fishing(trolling) and leave your hand's free to paddle. I've never caught a largemouth bass up there but the smallmouth's are everywhere! Use small crankbait's like a #7 Shad Rap for them. You will have greater success if you go after them early in the morning. Cast toward's cover close to the shoreline. Let your bait sit for a few second's! Then give it a couple small jerk's before you start your retrieve. Then, WATCH OUT!LOL! Most of the lake's you will encounter also have good population's of walleye's and northern's. You will probably catch all the northern's you could want just by accident! I try to avoid those slimer's! If you can convince any of your buddy's to try this, the deadliest way I know of for catching walleye's is fish for them after it get's DARK! Wait until it get's darker than the inside of a cow before you go out! Tie on a shallow running stickbait, like a Rebel or a Rapala! The Rebel's always seemed to work better for me. Then get out and paddle at what seem's to be trolling speed to you. You want to try to be fishing in 3 to 5 feet of water! Go paralell to almost any shoreline. Point's and any narrow area's are good one's to try also. I usually found that the bite would shut down after around 1:30 or 2:00 in the morning. Not to worry though. By then you will probably have all the walleye's you could possibly want! Fishing after dark really isn't all that difficult! After you have been out for at least 15 minute's, your eye's will adjust to night vision and you will be surprised how well you actually can see! Another thing you might want to consider is to bring along a jar of Berkley Gulp Alive leeche's. Plus whatever you need to get rigged up for slip bobber fishing. This work's just as well for smallie's as it does for walleye's. Inparticular if you come across an area where there is water running into a lake! Even more so if there is a little current in the area. Last but not least, you might want to bring a couple jig's along. One of the best method's to try. You will be encountering a lot of rocky area's though. So don't let your jig's drop too deep! This link I'm going to post for you is about a fabulous sounding new jig that I just encountered today! Check it out!   http://www.danlurefreedom.com/index.html  Look's pretty darn good, doesn't it? Good luck to you and all your buddy's WW! When you get back, I expect you to have a bigger and better lie ready for me! :w00t: :rotflol: DIRTBALL2 ;)
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WackyWalleye

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Re: Boundry Waters Canoeing trip
« Reply #4 on: Mar 30, 2012, 01:23 PM »
Wow! there is so much valuable information in that message it is going to take me awhile to make sure I get all of it! It's a good thing I have until the end of June! The way you guys keep Telling me it is so great, I am already itching to go! Thanks for all the information and I will definitely have something to brag about when I get home with all of these tips!!  ;D ;D
If it was guaranteed they would call it catching, not fishing!

Jimmy

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Re: Boundry Waters Canoeing trip
« Reply #5 on: Apr 25, 2012, 10:21 AM »
This is a great thread already!   ;D

I just committed to a meeting in Minneapolis at the end of July, and I am going to try to stretch it out into a little vacation in BWCA and/or Quanitco, too!   Rent a car after my meetings and head north.

I am an avid Smallie and Pike fishermen, so I have always wanted to fish and camp in the Boundary Waters.

Thanks for the information already!  I will be solo for three or four days, hoping to fish the whole time.
"Once in awhile you get shown the light...  In the strangest of places if you look at it right..."    -J. Garcia

Jimmy

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Re: Boundry Waters Canoeing trip
« Reply #6 on: Jul 30, 2012, 10:41 AM »
I had a business trip to Minneapolis last week, so I extended my stay through Sunday night so that I could make a suicide-run up to the BWCA and do some paddling and fishing.

The smallmouth bite was hot, and the BWCA is amazing!!!

Surely one of my favorite wilderness areas yet!  Most Smallies took stickbaits of soft plastics with abandon.

And I manged a new personal best!  23.5" and likely in the neighborhood of five pounds:


Of course, I hooked this one around 2am after a particularly rowdy campfire celebration so the battle was extra-epic and the laughter and hollering was probably heard in Thunder Bay just up the road.

I accessed the BWCA from the end of the Gunflint Trail, and paddled Seagull Lake then portaged into a few neighboring waters for pike and more smallmouth.  What a great peice of the planet that is.

And the North Shore of Lake Superior amazed me.  Total bonus scenery, for sure!











"Once in awhile you get shown the light...  In the strangest of places if you look at it right..."    -J. Garcia

waterwolf603

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Re: Boundry Waters Canoeing trip
« Reply #7 on: Jul 30, 2012, 10:45 AM »
great pics Jimmy I would definitely say that smallie is 5lbs
lakes, lies, and marble eyes

DIRTBALL2

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Re: Boundry Waters Canoeing trip
« Reply #8 on: Jul 31, 2012, 09:52 AM »
The BWCA is all I said it was and more, isn't it Jimmy? And you didn't even get into the best part! I'm referring to Lake Saganaga which border's on the Quetico Provincial Park in Canada! The BWCA is so big that you could spend a lifetime trying to see all of it! Which you probably couldn't do! And every last bit of it is just as beautiful and awe inspiring! Count yourself as fortunate for even the small amount of time you got to spend there. Every single time I've gone up there I feel doubly blessed and incredibly grateful! So it should hardly come as a surprise that I have getting up there again as #1 on my Bucket List! ;DDIRTBALL2 ;)
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Cornbread

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Re: Boundry Waters Canoeing trip
« Reply #9 on: Jul 31, 2012, 10:57 AM »
I lived near the BWCA in Northern MN when I was younger. We went every year for two to three weeks for a long canoe vacation as a family. I love that area up there. Sounds like stick baits and soft plastics are still what works up there. I would also suggest bringing a set of small spoons that has a five of diamonds, a dare devil, a red eye wiggler etc. late in the year the pike can be deep so spoons can work real well to catch them down in the colder depths. Inline flexible spinners with a single hook that you put a Mr Twister on can work real well too for both smallies all day and pike( in the mornings and evenings ). I like the 3" Mr Twisters to tip them with in black, white, and that sort of jello greenish yellow color. As kids we never caught much trolling but I think that is because my parents were pretty hard core and were probably going too fast. Bring jig heads that you can put soft plastics on for both smallies and walleye. You can catch your own leeches up there while you travel each night if you want live bait and want to take the time to put out leech traps but it is a lot easier to bring them in yourself as they don't take up much room. Put them in a ziplock bag with air and water in a tiny lunch cooler with ice and then put them in a leech tamer each night in camp. The little lunch cooler won't take up much room and you can carry it by hand on portages. Bring a ton of them if you can as the fish snap them up pretty quick.
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justatrout

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Re: Boundry Waters Canoeing trip
« Reply #10 on: Oct 07, 2012, 05:20 AM »
great trip

 



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