Some friends of mine have planned a June trip for us to BW. There will be 4-6 of us who will be there for 6-7 days and are going to enter at point 16. The plan is to base camp on Lake Agnes and go fish on some of the surrounding lakes in the area. We may leave our base camp for a few days and do a small loop either east or west. Our trip will mostly involve fishing but I would love to check out any sights in the surrounding areas.

Does anyone have any tips on good campsites or lakes that we should go to while we are there? Is there anything in the surrounding areas that is worth taking a trip to see?

This will be second trip to the BW. My last trip was from Entry point 55 and we did a loop starting a Saganaga and ending back at Sea Gull Lake. The trip was in 2001 and I have not stopped talking about it since. It was the best trip that I have ever taken and I can't wait to get back.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Here's a link to a previous post that you might find helpful.

Thanks, Snakecharmer. This will be a huge help.

When you going in Sparky?...I'll be there 6-12. Agnes to LLC then points NW.

Go to the maps section here and pull up the topo of Agnes and check out the marked areas, I know I marked a great campsite IMO and others may have also!

Bruce

Cow doc, I think we are going in Saturday June 16. I know we are making the 14 hour drive up on Friday from Ohio.

Arkansas Man, thanks for the link. I have checked out the map several times. This site is great!

I will be going in the same day same spot whats your e mail address? I have ben there before and can help you a little

I too will be leaving on the 6th. what a coincinence. I will be in a group of 2 canoes paddling a mad river canoe(red) with many rods sticking out the front. also there will probably be a golden retriever sitting in the middle. if you see me yell "ANDREW" and Ill come over and say hi. We plan on spending the first few days on oyster then migrating over to agnes and iron. on another note, where is the ranger station to go to if I am entering ep16?

That would be the Kawishawi Ranger Station just outside of Ely.

I'm going in on the 6th, too. See you there.

well, say hi if you see me. I wonder what the h20 levels in the rivers are like?

As it turns out, my son and I will be coming out on the 6th. I don't know how early a start you have planned and I don't want to commit to an exit time but maybe we can give you a live update on fishing and camping conditions on our way out.

I was just up at Agnes camping with 5 buddies over the fishing opener. We camped on the NE end of the lake, on a point, just before you get to the Boulder River portage. Great site. We pulled in quite a few pike, smally's, and a dozen or so walleyes on the boulder, both below and above the rapids. Our best luck was fishing hot pink or chartreuse jigs with fathead minnows on the NW shore of Agnes. We easily pulled in 100+ crappie in less than 2 hours on 5/14 in about 15' water. Good luck!

sparky, I'll be going from Oyster to Agnes and then out on Sat. the 16th. May meet you on Agnes or going out Moose River. 3 canoes, 7 people. I'll be the good looking one in the stern of the SR. Other 2 are MN II's, one green.
I'll try to tell you how things on LLC are.

how big were these crappies? any over 14 inches? where did you catch them.(you can email me if you dont want to post here)adchadwick@comcast.net I plan to put in as early as I can. We will be @ the bait shopwhen it opens, then on to the ranger station, then from there a straight shot to the EP. my description is above. there will be 2 canoes, an old grumen (sp?) and a mad river red canoe in which I will be the bow paddler.

Just got back from a week on Agnes today. Caught crappie mostly in the 10-12inch range on Agnes...13-14inches in the Boulder river. Many, many Walleye on Agnes and the river. Lots of good eaters and some up to 24inches. Packed out lots of fillets.

Wow, I didn't realize that there were so many crappie in Agnes and Boulder River. Does anyone catch them without minnows? I suppose a 2 inch white twister jig would get them...

We pack in Rainbows....most of the fish we cleaned had multiple Rainbows in the stomach. You can catch crappie on 16th-8th oz jigs and 2-3 inch twisters, power leeches, etc. Maybe a walleye or 2.

I thought you werent supposed to pack out fish? I know almost every one sees this as taboo. I remeber the Tofte station rangers telling us not to do it and to only keep what we could eat while in the bwca. they said its not 1960 anymore and catch and release is needed to maintain the fisheries.

Never heard anything about not packing out fish. The fishing regs say 6 walleye per day per person and 10 crappie per day per person.....why can't I pack out fish if I abide by the state mandated regulations.

correction, you are allowed to bring fish out, but it is frowned down upon. But you do have your regulations wrong.It is a possession limit, not a daily limit. you can only have 6 walleyes in POSSESION. this means even if you are gone for a week you can still only have 6 fish per person in posession, at home and on the water combined.
for example, if you were to pack fish out of the BWCA, you could only have a total of 6 fish, even if you had been in for a week. the only fish with a daily limit is perch, which is 20 daily and 40 in posession.

Sorry if I come off as a jerk, but Id hate to see you get in trouble for something that you weren't aware of. Those people who come and take hundereds of fish however, is a totaly diferent situation.

I do fully understand and abide by the posession limit. When I take people into the BWCA not only do I want them to experience good quality fishing and eat fish in the woods; I highly recommend catch and release but also want them to be able to take fish home if they wish. Thank you for being concerned chadwick. We all want good fishing now and for years to come in the BWCA! It is also a treat when you can pack out a few fish to enjoy at home.

buzz17

Chadwick,

The Tofte ranger station is a Federal agency, and should be concerned with two things, issuing your permit and making sure you are aware of the BWCA regulations. They have absolutely no business expressing their personal wilderness philosophy pertaining to possession limits of fish, and whether you should take any home.

The Minnesota DNR establishes fishing regulations including limits, not the Federal government.

great, now that thats ou tof the way lets get back to the fishing talk. did you have any one particular color outfish others (chartruse??)

Chartreuse (yellow or green) is always a good color in stained water. I used many different color jig heads and caught fish regardless. The color I probably used most was pink or pink/white. The other jig color that worked well was black.

I just bought some new 3-inch Powerbait grubs in a color called "Christmas Lights." It's a mix of chartreuse, green and orange. Kind of funky. I'll let you all know if it works in July.

I use those for crappies in the 2 inch version. I will be bringing them in on the 6th.

the crappies or the walleyes had "multiple rainbows" in their stomachs. Which one?

Chadwick how do you fish for crappies in the BWCA? When I was a kid we used to fish in the Leech Lake area and we trolled crappie jigs with minnows near the edge of lilly pads.

Brommel, I use an ultra light and throw small 2' twister jigs at them. pick up lots of walleyes this way too.

What color jigs? Where and when do you throw them? Depth? Time of day?

Ive only done it on one trip. I used a chartruse 1/16 oz jig with a 2" natural chartruse powerbait twister tail. a small bober helped once the fishing slowed.I found these fish in downed timber in about 6 feet of water in a bay.I will be at agnes in 2 weeks and will be experimenting for craps. Ill let you know how I did.

Try trolling with that jig at sunset. Put out a lot of line so it can get down a little. Trolling can be very effective at finding and catching crappies.

Both the crappie and walleye had multiple rainbows in the stomach. We were catching them on Agnes in 17-20 ft of water. On the Boulder 12-22ft mostly at the bottom of rapids in and around the pools. Hope this helps.

I don't think there's any kind of taboo or frowning upon regarding bringing out some fish. I think it's just not done much out of logistics - keeping fillets fresh, etc.. You buy a license, you spend a small percentage of your time up there, you're perfectly entitled to bring a few fillets home.

This thread got off track.

Agnes is a lovely lake and as Ark man noted there are excellent campsites marked in the Maps section here.

Just got back - Moose River is the lowest I've ever seen, but the only problems were at the portages - easy landings and exits were complicated by sudden dropoffs into deeper areas.

Now that you mention it, I noticed that too Beemer - it would look like an easy spot to land, but when you paddled up to it, you'd have to reconsider your approach, as stepping out close to shore could be 4'+ deep in some places.

Thanks 4 the heads up Howard and Beemer. I'm heading in tuesday and will heed your warnings, though I'm hoping all this rain may change the levels.