Scheduling forced me to take an entry date prior to the fish opener. May 4th to be exact. Besides the fear of having to ice-fish on my entry, what can I do, what can I fish for? I'd like some fish in the frying pan...

You can fish for pike on the border lakes however, if it stays cold and snowy this winter there will still be ice on May 4th.

I am fearful of the ice issue. Time shall tell. February and March are going to be long months for me. Entry is Cross Bay Lake, and no border lakes. Panfish maybe?

Also panfish anywhere and Bass on the border waters are fair game as well.

If you are in Minnesota inland waters. Your only legal option to pursue are panfish.

Just a note you may not fish for a species out of season in Minnesota. If you catch one by accident it must be immediately released.

T

I just did some scanning of the records in that region a couple notes:

Reports are thin as to what is present in most lakes but here is what I've found:

1. Yellow Perch are present in some of the lakes and are open year round

2. Burbot are present in most of the lakes and are open year round, are very tasty but it might look like you are targeting Lake Trout (could be legal grey zone)

3. White Sucker are present in most (maybe all) the lakes around there, if the ice is off they should be spawning in creeks or at the creek mouths. Ignore the BS about how they taste, I eat them all the time and they are very similar to popular food fish like panfish - white, flaky, and mild. The only issue is the bones, which are actually pretty similar to pike bones and can be removed similarly.

I gotta believe there are crappie and gills in most of the lakes?

I know on one of my trips in Long Island we passed/talked to older gentlemen who were fishing (late June) for gills/panfish. They said noone targets them and they are everywhere because Pike feed on them. They said they are going to let everyone else mess with the other fish and they will sit there and relax and catch nice gills. I have never tried it and really, with the bigger fish, why would i waste my time, that is my thought. Honestly that is why i fish mainly for bass/pike not walleye/trout because they are easy to catch and with them jumping on the hook, i hate to waste time learning to catch the others. i am making the time now that i have a few trips under my belt and enjoy it...just dont catch the numbers, but when it gets slow i go back to bass. :)

I can stay home in Indiana and catch gills. But in your position, i would sure go for it to get a few in the pan.

Crappie actually aren't very widely distributed with the BW, I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't any in the area.

Sunfish can be hit or miss in the BW but I would think you would find some. A few of the reports I checked mention Pumpkinseed as present but I think that Sunfish are likely under reported with the BW, so take the reports on them with a grain of salt

Oh and White Sucker is the primary prey for Pike in most lakes in the BW, so a lake doesn't need Sunfish to have pike - in fact pike get bigger on Sucker as forage (cisco and whitefish are even better)

That time of year, I personally would be on the lookout for White Sucker.

That said, some of the BW lakes have awesome fishing for Sunfish - sometimes in sizes well worth the effort. For sunfish I'd look hard for shallow areas, especially in areas of inlets and outlets.

Hopefully, spring is kind and doesn't leave you with a bunch of ice to deal with...

I believe you can angle for whitefish. I once watched some guys catching whitefish at the base of a rapids in April.

The talk about panfish sparked some fond memories of fishing in the Boundary Waters as a kid.

When I was a boy, on my first trip at 10 years old, our permit to go in was canceled the day before our trip because of a forest fire. My father, knowing that I would be devastated if we had to cancel the trip, got on the phone with the USFS and was able to locate a new permit for us. We went up the Kawishiwi river and I can remember it was late August and the river was choked with weeds, making travel difficult at times. After a few days of seeing nothing but the weed choked river we came to a fork where we stayed for the night. We planned to make it out on some open water the next day and stay on lakes for the rest of the trip, which I was very excited about because my fishing line hadn't been in the water yet and I couldn't wait to get it in. The campsite on the river that night had some open flowing water in front of it. There was also a back water area around the side that made a sort of large pool. After begging my dad for a while to let me get my pole out and fish, he gave in and I tossed in a worm and a bobber. Instantly I had a bite, and brought in a nice Sunfish. I repeated this over and over and eventually everyone had their worm and bobber rig in the water. We ended up with a pan full of fish for dinner and caught more than we could even count. That is the only day I can ever remember catching a Sunfish anywhere in the Boundary Waters.

About 5 years ago we caught a nice Crappie while trolling for Walleyes with Shad Raps. That was on Agnes right at dusk.

So now that I'm thinking about panfish, TGO, what are your insights on fishing Sunfish and Crappie in the Boundary Waters? Are they prevalent? How are their numbers?

Suckers could be in or near the creeks at that time and are great eating when fresh and fight as good as any stream Trout. I think spearing would be another option, usually after the first Saturday in May. Bluegills are easy to find after ice out, usually in the warmest shallow bays available. I'm not sure about the populations in those waters specifically though. Both species would hit a 1" piece of Nightcrawler and whatever else you catch you could release.

quote Exo: "I gotta believe there are crappie and gills in most of the lakes?"

Crappie are not as widely distributed in the BW as you'd think, but they are certainly present. LLC, Agnes and Gabbro are lakes I've personally caught them on. I've caught sunfish on Wood, Toe and Insula.

caught these crappies in Iron a couple of years ago, it was crazy jigging for walleyes also catching crappies