Boundary Waters Trip (BWCA)

(Sorry this is Minnesota, no ones posts in the Minnesota forum)

Planning a 3-4 day trip this August with a group of guys. Heading up from the Minneapolis/Eau Claire area. I know many of you have made the trip before, so I'm looking for recommendations on outfitters, lakes, things to see, etc. Did you camp in a new spot each night? Is 3 days long enough? What species did you target?

We have all the equipment except for the canoe so we're looking for an outfitter primarily to provide this.

I'm thinking more of an intermediate trip, we did Sylvania two years ago with the portages averaging 1-2 miles and this was pretty easy. We set up camp and would venture out from there each day.

Feel free to share any stories and experiences!

Have a fishing trip early June for mainly lakers.  A husband wife, another couple trip in July for mainly fun.  Can't wait.

Non stop smallies in BASSWOOD Lake and make your trip at least a 7 day er. CARPIO.    Go heavy on small top water baits.

Permits open today.

Perfect temps for early ice gear.

Any recommendations for EPs or destinations that time of year? Original plan was EP 16 up to boulder bay area but thinking about changing it up since we aren't restricted by our permit anymore.

Fish are typically very deep and can be hard to find. It's tough fishing that time of year.

Bring your long undies. You're gonna need them!!

Anyone have any tips for late October fishing up there? Had to reschedule this weekends trip for the end of October, kind of changes our whole game plan. Will we have to worry about water levels that late in the year on the rivers?

I've been to the ely area, and the gunflint area.  For fishing I'd recommend Ely.  Lake one and beyond.  Gunfint has fish, but the waters there tend to be much much deeper.  Didn't see alot over 40ft from the kawishawee river to Hudson lake, but when we went to gunflint we we're often in 150+ FOW even fairly close to shore.  Great for lake trout I guess, but I never caught any.  I did find something very interesting my last trip in the ely area in the lake 1,2,3,4 area.  If your headed that way , pm me and I'll tell you about it.  We had used kawishawi river outfitters, but that was years ago.  They may or may not have the same name now.  Unless your real hardcore, I wouldn't bother with the boarder crossing Canadian issues, there is plenty of good fishing/camping on the us side to mess with all the hassle imo.  We had luck casting and trolling rapalas, spoons, mepps, and jigs are all must haves.   Rapala 13 floaters in gold is almost mandatory if you ask me, best walleye fishing we ever had came using standard gumball style jigs with nightcralwers we found at a campsite on the way in.  No idea if they were native or if another group dumped them.  But they caught fish when nothing else did.  Collapsible minnow traps and some Cheerios are a good idea too to catch some minnows for use on jigs as well.  But this was always in June.  Leeches will probably also be good then too.  But hard to keep.  Pack light as possible.  You will be portaging almost without a doubt.  We always packed food expecting at least 3-4 meals of fish, so you either catch them, or go hungry.  

Bacon

Public.     Too bad! No more solitude there. I went out of Ely in 1974. We outfitted with Cliff Wold. Very rustic accommodations but clean. We paddled 1 week north,then 1 week back and saw a total of about 10 people.we only used hair jigs,daredevils,and rapalas. Awesome fishing! Great time except for bears.  CARPIO 

What have you guys used for a minnow/leech bucket? Do you just use a normal bucket and suck it up on the portages?

I used Sawbill. Good people.  Theyre all good otherwise they couldnt stay in business.

Hungry Jack is another good one I used

 Mr. P. Swede's got the right idea. After two days you turn them inside out and you're good to go for another couple days! Sylvania is good prep for a Canadian canoe outing. The big difference is the portages sometimes climb way up and others drop way down. If you go to Agnes you have to check out the falls. We had a blast swimming there. Traveling light was already mentioned. Don't forget your back country Canadian pass for the remote ranger's station. Buy the small book there on pictographs and check them out too.

Thanks for the input!

I think we're pretty much set on the Ely area, probably entry point 16 but nothing is booked yet. We want to fish Lake Agnes at least one day but will probably camp on a smaller lake and portage there to try and be a little more secluded. There's no way the bugs can be as bad as they were in Sylvania last year, we wore long pants and sleeves pretty much all of the trip. Dates are locked in for September 13-17th so hopefully the bugs die down a bit by then. Looking forward to it!

Ely is generally better for walleyes and Gunflint is better for lakers. There are exceptions of course, Saganaga, Seagull and a lot of the smaller lakes up towards the Gunflint do hold many walleye, but Ely is where I would probably go if i only had 3 days. Ely is also ~2 Hours closer than Saganaga or other lakes at the end of the gunflint, so if you only have a few days the extra time would really be nice. Don't forget bug spray if you're heading up in august!

I have used Williams and Hall before.  Good service and equipment.  Nice people.  They are located in Ely. You can access the boundary waters from basswood lake either through fall lake ( closer to town) or through moose lake ( 20 miles out of town but with a tow boat to save you time into the waters.) Basswood is like two different lakes one with stained water (fall) other clear ( moose.) You can camp on basswood and make a base camp and go to smaller lakes from it. A lot depends on how far that you want to paddle the first day if you are in for only 3 days. I would recommend calling a couple of outfitters in ely and they will give you plenty of solid advice to help with your choices.  Ely is a very cool little town.  Hope this helps.