Anyone ever been to Kabetogama lake, or the other lakes in Voyageur Park? How's the fishing?

Been to all of them Silverback and theyre all good for most species. If you just fish the Islands, shallow ones early in the year and the basin ones with access to deep water in the summer, you will have a great time fishing. Theyre all pretty comparable in how good they are.

I too have fished all of them. Namakan lake is my favorite, since I have been fishing it for the last 25 years. The slot limit really helped improve the fishing. Kabetogama is a great lake, lots of rock and structure, but I have spent more time on the eastern end of the park.

Spent a week on Kab last summer. The slot limits really has expanded the fishing. If you want muskies and a BWCAW feel try a trip to Shoepack lake. Never done it, but it has a high population of okay sized muskies.

BWCAW feel with all of the luxury.

Namakan and Kabetogama are lakes with quite different characters. All the water that comes from the Quetico Superior flows through Namakan, so it is a bit bog stained. Kabetogama is sort of a dead end, and while isn't bog stained, it is more fertile. Kab is a more productive lake--the average walleye netted by the DNR in 2008 was 1.6 pounds vs .8 pounds for Namakan. Namakan is much deeper than Kab as well. Not to knock Namakan. It's one of the prettiest lakes in Minnesota IMO. timatkn mentioned Shoepack; another interesting little lake is Cruiser, which has an excellent population of small lake trout. The park service keeps canoes on the inland lakes which are available to the public.

Thank you gentlemen, I think that will be my June fishing trip this year. You guys and this site ROCK!

I'll be there in June this year at Park Point resort--unfortunately we will probably be some of the last guests they have as the resort is selling :(

I have only fished the lake once--last year.

Last year was weird for fishing--so I was told with the cold weather. Opener was incredible lots of big fish then the big fish just turned off. We caught many eaters anywhere from 2 to 40 feet deep. The fish were just scattered. Evenings jigging shallow emergent weeds worked the best. 1/8 oz. to 1/16 ounce jig chartrues with a half crawler. No jig body. Anchor and fan cast worked best otherwise the fish spooked. Also caught nice walleyes casting into surface schools of ciscoe with a big crankbait in the evenings--pelicans will give away the ciscoe schools.

During day we used home made little joe rigs gold and silver with minnows, leeches, and crawlers off of a bottom bouncer. The key was we needed to keep moving and find active fish. Foundthem on the points and breaks form 12-35 feet. Saugers were deeper.

We caught walleyes literally everywhere we tried---except for the evening bite nothing was incredible. Once again it was a weird year for weather. We also caught a lot of bigger Saugers 14-18". An 18" sauger really can fight. One evening we each caught about 25 walleye/saugers each--most were 10-14 inchers but a few were into the mid 20's.

Had a friend up there at the same time and they did well just trolling cranks on the Southern end of the lake towards the Namaken.

There are a lot of Northerns in the lake but they just did not turn on when we were there. No one was catching much for Northerns last June---other resort guests said the prior year couldn't keep them off.

Of course everything I just told you could be different in 2010---but those are the patterns we will start with and adapt from there. One evening while we fan casted tiny jigs a group sat right next to us and used leeches on slip bobbers. We boated close to 100 fish to their 2 fish. I just bring this up becuase ya can't be married to a technique---I can't beleive they never switched over to what we were doing :)

Good luck.

T

timatkn great info. I'll definitely take your suggestions with me. 20"+ saugers holy cow! I just booked the last week in May with Voyageur Park lodge. I'll try to remember to give you an update when I get back. Thanks again.

I haven't been up to VNP since 97, would love to get back. One of these days when I have the guts to take two full weeks off from work I'm going to do a week in the BW and then a week at Frontier Resort

Silverback did you make it up to Kab? I will be there in 3 weeks. If so how'd ya do? I heard they are just starting to turn on.

T

My Aunt & Uncle run a resort on the lake. NORTHERN LIGHTS. In fact they hosted the Governors fishing opener this past year.

It's a big beautiful lake. Similar terrain to BWCAW. Fishing can be excellent.

Also, if you have time. Check out Ellsworth Rock Gardens. A really cool spot. Has a landing dock and everything.

timatkn had to change my resivations to June 4th. I've gotten some feed back that the walleyes are hanging in 30 fow. The smallies are done spawning, and the northerns are attacking everything. I'll be back on the 11th and will update you if you'd like.

Tusc Bor thanks for the spot, it's on the list.

Good luck. Sounds like the fishing patterns are a lot different than last year. That is probably a good thing.

I go in on the 18th so I'll be a week behind ya.

T

Just got back. That lake is an incredible fishery. Caught lots of "keeper" fish and even more monster eyes.

timatkn I tried to email you but it came back. Send me an e-mail and I'll give you an update of what was working for us.

Thanks for trying--I sent ya an email hopefully that will work.


T

Weird---my email to you comes back undeliverable as well. Tried both my work and home email to ya--can't get through. Might be on your end, I am getting and sending fine to eveyone else.

Thanks again for trying. I can't wait to get up there---I need a vacation bad.

T

IF I had my pick of a lake to fish in VNP,,, hands down, RAINY!!!

Timatkn, in a nut shell every walleye tactic worked. The best fishing was Tom Cod. There's a little wild rice island that has a rock wall on the east. Fish that when the wind is blowing into the bay, between 8:30pm - 10:30pm with a gold jig and minnows in 8' to 9.5' fow. BIG eyes every night (20-25 inches). Ran out of minnows twice!

Enjoy your vacation, it goes by fast.

Thanks again. Sounds like a similar pattern we ran into last year. There are a lot of fish in that lake. Can't wait for Friday.


T