Hey guys,

I'm going up to the BWCA for the second time on August 22nd. I hope to catch anything--northern pike, walleye, bass, or lake trout. What would be most exciting for me is lake trout or walleye, since both are reputedly good eaters and I've never caught either species before! Most of my fishing involves easily-caught species such as channel catfish, sunfish, and smallmouth bass (with topwaters).

I am a gear guy--but have no idea how to use, or where I should be casting, my lures. I've got a bunch of Rapala shallow runners and deep divers, top waters (Heddon torpedo jr, a few sizes of Hula poppers, some other misc. ones like a Rebel Pop-R and Chug Bug), and a lot of spoons. I have a bunch of really small spoons that I snagged from my dad's tackle box and have never used (not sure what they're good for--they're about the length of my pinky from the first joint out to my fingertip), or otherwise mostly 1 oz spoons.

I went last fall in late Sept. and only succeeded in snagging and losing 3 Daredevl spoons. My remaining Daredevl is a firetiger design. I just augmented my tackle with some spoons from Cabelas--a five of diamonds, a shiny silver one with green and purple accents, and a shiny silver one with some firetiger accents. From my father's tackle box, I have some never used Red Eye Wigglers (probably around 1 oz) as well.

To my pointed questions:
1. What kind of rig should I use for walleye? Where do I cast? Last time, I trolled perch colored walleye divers (both Rapala and Gordon-Cordell) with no luck on ANY lake. Here, I just threw it behind the canoe and let out tons of slack.
2. What kind of plastic baits? Do colors matter? Are brands just a matter of personal preference? I've seen many references to whacky rigged senko worms, using a curly tail to jig, etc. Once I have the plastic on, what exactly do I do? Just jig straight up and down? I have no experience with plastics, so I'd love some advice here.
3. Any quick and dirty advice on lake trout? I can't afford a fish finder, and most stuff I've read points me to needing to fish 60-70 feet deep. What do I fish with? How do I achieve this depth?
4. Where will be likely hangouts for Northern Pike while I'm there? Will they bite on top waters or just spoons?

For what it's worth--I'm using 8 lb braided Spiderwire on an Ugly Stik medium action. Not the ideal rod, but it's hardy and I don't have to take great care of it.

I use the same rod and line for te same reasons. I'm sure you will get a ton of great advice here and can search the boards from previous posts on pike, specifically that time of year. I am also going up the same week. So we're in the same boat...no pun intended!

I am by no means an expert but can just share my experiences with you. All of my previous trips have been in June or as late as mid-July so the patters will be a little different. What I've found is I usually bring up a small box with spoons (red devil 1 oz), shad- raps, assortment of crank baits, kast masters, #5 Mepps spinners, jigs with 4" mister twisters and top waters like you mentioned.

Now that I drag all that with me what I usually wind up doing is using mostly 3 things. I have a rig with braid that I through the Mepps spinners and top water with and a rig spooled with mono that I tie a jig on (1/8 or 1/4 oz depending on wind and conditions). I put a 4" twister on the jig and you can vertically jig deep off rock piles for walleys, of course depth changes with time of year and weather. I also cast the jig near the rock piles and left sink, pull up and retrieve a little and let sink again. I have done well with the small mouth, pike and the occasional eye this way. I like to use pepper or chartreuse. The top water dawn and dusk can be very productive for both smallies and pike. I also through the spinners which will pick up smallies and pike, both along shallow weed lines and some bigger pike deeper but also along weed lines.

You can cast and retrieve the spoons and pike are aggressive and likely will bite most flashy things...a ton of fun! You can troll them also.

Good luck with the eye's. I have done much better in the river systems with a jig and minnow than in the Q with all artificial...like I said...I'm no expert! I'm definitely not a lake trout guy, but you will get good advice here.

I'm no expert, but I'll see if I can get you started.

quote TallMatt: "1. What kind of rig should I use for walleye? Where do I cast?"

Lots of different things work depending on the conditions, but one of the classics is something called a "Lindy rig", which consists of a sinker ahead of a barrel swivel and 2-6' piece of line called a "snell", with either a simple hook on the end or a floating jig, and sometimes with a positionable float along it. Single-hook a full leech on that and drag it over the ends of sand bars and along hard-bottom structure like gravel or a smooth rock. The idea is that the sinker keeps it firmly near the bottom, while the float keeps it a defined distance off the bottom. You just let out a long line and slowly pass over the area.

quote TallMatt: "3. Any quick and dirty advice on lake trout? I can't afford a fish finder, and most stuff I've read points me to needing to fish 60-70 feet deep. What do I fish with? How do I achieve this depth?"

Small, flashy spoons, either super-slow trolled on a 3-way swivel or jigging, on relatively light line with a 1-3oz sinker. A good map and some compass skills can fill the gap of not having a sonar. There's a decent write-up about Lake Trout on http://www.twin-lakes-air.com/lake-trout.htm . I had previously thought I couldn't afford a fish finder, but then discovered that there are a few units between $100 and $150, which I was able to manage. I picked up this model at Joe's - http://www.joessportinggoods.com/humminbird-4072401-piranhamax-160-portable-depth-finder.html .

quote TallMatt: "4. Where will be likely hangouts for Northern Pike while I'm there? Will they bite on top waters or just spoons?"

Shallow, weedy areas when feeding, and deeper places near such places otherwise. Pike will bite on practically anything, so it's just the personal preference of the day to guess.

quote TallMatt: "Hey guys,

I'm going up to the BWCA for the second time on August 22nd. I hope to catch anything--northern pike, walleye, bass, or lake trout. What would be most exciting for me is lake trout or walleye, since both are reputedly good eaters and I've never caught either species before! Most of my fishing involves easily-caught species such as channel catfish, sunfish, and smallmouth bass (with topwaters).

I am a gear guy--but have no idea how to use, or where I should be casting, my lures. I've got a bunch of Rapala shallow runners and deep divers, top waters (Heddon torpedo jr, a few sizes of Hula poppers, some other misc. ones like a Rebel Pop-R and Chug Bug), and a lot of spoons. I have a bunch of really small spoons that I snagged from my dad's tackle box and have never used (not sure what they're good for--they're about the length of my pinky from the first joint out to my fingertip), or otherwise mostly 1 oz spoons.

I went last fall in late Sept. and only succeeded in snagging and losing 3 Daredevl spoons. My remaining Daredevl is a firetiger design. I just augmented my tackle with some spoons from Cabelas--a five of diamonds, a shiny silver one with green and purple accents, and a shiny silver one with some firetiger accents. From my father's tackle box, I have some never used Red Eye Wigglers (probably around 1 oz) as well.

To my pointed questions:
1. What kind of rig should I use for walleye? Where do I cast? Last time, I trolled perch colored walleye divers (both Rapala and Gordon-Cordell) with no luck on ANY lake. Here, I just threw it behind the canoe and let out tons of slack.
2. What kind of plastic baits? Do colors matter? Are brands just a matter of personal preference? I've seen many references to whacky rigged senko worms, using a curly tail to jig, etc. Once I have the plastic on, what exactly do I do? Just jig straight up and down? I have no experience with plastics, so I'd love some advice here.
3. Any quick and dirty advice on lake trout? I can't afford a fish finder, and most stuff I've read points me to needing to fish 60-70 feet deep. What do I fish with? How do I achieve this depth?
4. Where will be likely hangouts for Northern Pike while I'm there? Will they bite on top waters or just spoons?


For what it's worth--I'm using 8 lb braided Spiderwire on an Ugly Stik medium action. Not the ideal rod, but it's hardy and I don't have to take great care of it."

Welcome to the board Matt,nice to meet you. The best advice I can give you right now is to look through the older posts on the fishing forum and target specific ones that you want to learn about. There is a wealth of knowledge here, and alot of it should help you. The first and most important thing you should know, especially if you are going to catch a lake trout, is pick a lake with alot of lake trout in it. Second, time of day is crucial, you can catch lake trout right in the middle of the day, but if you want to increase your odds ( alot ) fish early and late in the day, at that time of year or when its raining. Third make sure you have a Rapala tail dancer purple descent , a 1/4 ounce silver little cleo, and a blue and silver rattlin rapala, cast it out over deep water and just start paddlin, the lakers will find you. p.s. bring a second rod spooled with 8 pound trilene xl mono.

It's always helpfull to check out your chosen lake(s) with the State of Minnesota DNR lakefinder to see what species haunt the areas you plan to fish. The topwater lures you have should be fine for Smallmouth, spoons and spinnerbaits for Pike and shadraps or leech and a slip bobber for Walleyes. I use mono snells for slip bobber fishing, mono and or a flourocarbon leader for casting and jigging and straight fireline for casting Tiny torpedos. You will have to jig or troll deep with spoons and such for Lakers that time of year. Ask for specifics from the members here about the lakes you'll be on for advice also. I try and keep my tackle to a minimum and still only use 1/2 of it on a trip.

Excellent advice from above contributors, plus:
You can eliminate unproductive water right now, at home before you go. 80-90% of the fish are in 10% of the water. Look for steep dropoffs, saddles between islands. Topo maps are available for most lakes on this site. Predominate wind direction in the BWCA is W/NW. Fish activity will be higher on the windier side. Look for interesting structure on the windy side, maybe a steep point that sticks out on the east side of the lake, or a couple of islands with the wind blowing down the middle. Because the water is so clear, low light times mean better feeding conditions for predators. Sunrise, sunset, cloudy, drizzly, windy(Caution!!) is usually better fishing.
When you catch a fish, think about how you did it...conditions...time of day...depth...how you were working the lure.
Finally, you do have control over some things: fresh line, great knots, sharp hooks. It's true, 10% of the fisherman catch 90% of the fish, and it's mainly because of these last three things.
Good Luck!!

In my opinion leech under a slip boober on a colored hook is the best bet for walleyes in the morning or before dark. Find shallow rocks if possible, 6'-15'. Lakers will be deep. Try fishing around points or islands with deep breaks, you can use somethimg as simple as a jig tipped with a salted shiner, or troll with the deepest diving rapala tail dancer you can find. Spoons may also work.