Looking to take my 5 year old up for a 4 or 5 night basecamp trip. I don't mind some portaging. Want to catch lots of fish, preferably smallmouth bass. I don't care if they are big but want to give a good, fast fishing, trip. A 5 star site would be nice too.

Any ideas?

Waiting for replies to your question have a four year old and would like to know the same.

quote chris77mcgrath: "Waiting for replies to your question have a four year old and would like to know the same."

when are you headed up?

quote bumabu: "Looking to take my 5 year old up for a 4 or 5 night basecamp trip. I don't mind some portaging. Want to catch lots of fish, preferably smallmouth bass. I don't care if they are big but want to give a good, fast fishing, trip. A 5 star site would be nice too.


Any ideas?"

Do you want to go east or west. West I would say Horse or Fourtown for a basecamp. Either lake is very good on its own but then you could branch out to Tin Can Mike or Gun, you should get your fill of smallies. If your going east its hard to beat Saganaga, but theres alot of other options, im sure people here will help you with suggestions . Good luck I hope you have a fantastic time.

Thanks 69, i was leaning towards Fourtown and Gun area, but thought I would see what other suggestions came up.

Keeping to the west side, Little Gab to Gab to Bald Eagle is a pleasant trip with good fall fishing. The initial portage is really all you have prep for.

Bud, when are you going to be going up?

Right now, tentatively, sept 11th for 4 or 5 nights. anyone else in the area with similar aged kids? would be cool to hook up and let the kids play.

No kids with me on this trip, but we'll be passing thru Gun/Fairy/Boot/Fourtown on our last days of our trip. If we see you guys we'll certainly stop by to say hi.

Wife & kids enjoy their time in Guatamala?

quote mirth: "No kids with me on this trip, but we'll be passing thru Gun/Fairy/Boot/Fourtown on our last days of our trip. If we see you guys we'll certainly stop by to say hi.


Wife & kids enjoy their time in Guatamala?"

They did! shoot me an email and let me know your dates and group description, I'll keep an eye out for you if I'm there.

Emailed. Perhaps we'll run into each other.....

Hello fellow family fisherperson! I'm taking one of my little ones to Fourtown Lake on Sept. 11th for a week. He and I LOVE to fish the BWCWA. We base camp and then fish from there. Just him and me this time, and we really just eat, sleep and fish. By the way he's 33 and I'm a spartan sixty something. I've been taking him and his brothers and mom fishing to Ontario, Quebec, Michigan, Minnnesota their entire lives! Can't beat growing up with fishing vacations and catching fish is the rock to build upon. I really hope to see you this fall, make sure to say hello. I'll be the good looking old guy in the front of the canoe, my son will be in the back doing all the paddling.

hey bgn82 - according to your profile- Are really 111 years old

guess i am too

Hey BGN, me and my bow partner will be passing thru the area 9/10-9/17. If you see us, say hi! We're mirth (stern) and dr. dye (bow).

Hello to you all. I don't know WHO came up with that profile, certainly not me. Been visiting BWCWA since atleast 1997 and first fished Lake Vermillion (Norwegian Bay) about 1983. I live in NE Ohio and it is about 1,100 miles to Ely, hard to do a weekend trip. Got my wife hooked on fishing while newly married and living in Dallas, TX. Would take her for the weekend to east Texas for some fabulous largemouth bass fishing and MANY years later, we still talk about those trips. You're all invited to a cup of coffee on Fourtown the week of Sept. 11. I'll keep the light on for you...!

In case you weren't aware of it, catch and release for small mouth begins Sept 12th. So if you planned to eat bass then, you will be out of luck.

BGN - maybe go up to Crooked instead, Smallies are open year round on international border lakes... That's why we're looping and not base camping! ;-)

Or, eat some walleyes & northern instead.

I would suggest Wood Lake, EP26. It is an easy paddle in, the site nearest the Hula portage is really nice. Shouldn't have any problem catching walleyes and smallmouth.

Hello again. We don't eat bass, large or small. Walleyes or maybe crappie, 1 dinner per trip and that's it. It's the catchin that's fun for us. How has the weather been lately in the BW? I read the weather in the local paper and notice that Duluth has been cool of late. Am getting excited about my trip, even at my extended age.

Check weather reports for Ely, MN. Duluth weather can be quite a bit different than areas that are more inland from Lake Superior.

Long range forecasts have the 9/9-9/11 weekend as cool with lows in the 30s. Hope that the jet stream stays North and warm weather is able to press that far up!

Sounds like a lot of us will be in that area that week. My group will be in Fourtown area 9 & 10 and move to Horse for 11 & 12.

True dat. We plan on overnighting on Horse on our way to Crooked on the 10th where we'll spend a few days up around Thursday and Friday bays. We'll be around Fourtown around Wednesday the 14th.

If you happen to see a short, skinny buff dude in the bow w/me and another with big bushy sideburns in the stern that'll be me & joe.

Forecast has improved slightly... Now the colder lows have shifted a few days before the weekend - fine by me! =)

We should be easy to spot as well. Three members, two boats. Im the bald dude with the 24 inch smallie on my line!

I was just at Gun a few weeks ago. Want to go back.

Coming from Fairy Lake we basecamped at the first campsite to the east of the portage. The site is a little peninsula. Fishing off the west and north side we caught a lot of fish, mostly smallmouth. I would highly recommend this site.

quote Dbor: "I was just at Gun a few weeks ago. Want to go back.


Coming from Fairy Lake we basecamped at the first campsite to the east of the portage. The site is a little peninsula. Fishing off the west and north side we caught a lot of fish, mostly smallmouth. I would highly recommend this site.


"

Dbor,

How many tent pads at this site?

Chazpad - Here's a link to Dbor's description.
Linkage

This time of year we've had good luck at the bottom of Lake Three and then day -tripping into Horseshoe and all the way to North Wilder. But those are long day trips for kids. We went in on Sawbill in September a few years ago and zilcho in terms of fish (again, in September).

There are two nice tent pads and one other ok one that was slighly slanted.

The site is really big with nice breeze and good view of lake from fire pit. Also has several not-very-shy beavers that cruise the shoreline.

We may try that site. Ive also heard the sites on fairy are great, so we may stop there.

Best camp in that area was 1889 on Gull but was taken so we stayed on Gun. Our site was great as well. Would love to try that Gull site though one day.