my dad and I are making our first trip to the bwca in may and we think we've decided on the moose lake entry point-25, i was wondering if anyone had had much experience there and was wondering what we could expect to catch and where some good places are to fish. I'm grateful for any help I can get

Shorty, help us out here. Moose up to Basswood is viewed by most of us as a route to somewhere, not a goal in itself. Having said that Moose looks like a Walleye/Northern/Smallie lake.

Basswood could take a book in and of itself to describe the fishing. Legendary big water fishing, and from my experience it is still a very good fishery.

Where do you plan to camp? Base camp or loop?

sorry for lack of information. ha we're going to take the portage into wind lake and then set up camp on wind bay of basswood on the first night and we don't know where to go from there. We were planning on originally going to mudro and then going up to crooked lake but only have 5 days. I don't know any particular reason that dad chose moose lake but was wondering if we have five days what lakes we should hit up for good fishing. that's our number one priority and we would rather not kill ourselves paddling for two or three days to only fish a little.

Ok. My only observation is that this bay of Basswood is open to motorized traffic, so there's that to consider.

What I would do, and this is just me, is to head East over to Knife Lake probably following the Knife River route. Five days is plenty for this. Once you're on Knife and the fishing is good for every species here, (check the maps section for noted good campsites and honey holes) you can also hop over to Bonnie and Spoon (Spoon is noted for a population of large and irritated Northerns). You can also climb Thunder Point for great views.

Just some thoughts.

If you like Northerns hit Wood Lake like you planned. Plenty of eatin' size and the possibility (maybe probability) of landing a monster.

Also; while sparse, there's some nice size Walleye in Wind.

Don't forget to drag a spinner behind you on the way up (check out the "Favorite Trolling Lures" post).

Keep in mind that there's a portage from Moose into Wind but it is quite a hump compared to the one from Basswood.

More humping/less paddling, less humping/more paddling; six of one, half a dozen of the other.

thanks a lot. past basswood are there any good lakes cuz we don't want to just stay on one lake the whole time.

And what methods are really used to catch lake trout and walleye? What type of areas should we throw too? I'm from mississippi and just moved to illinois and have never caught anything apart from largemouth and catfish. Any trout, pike, musky, and smallies are all new to me aside from seeing them on tv. ha

Shorty -

Well First, welcome to the Northcountry. Second start a new thread over on the fishing area and promise, we'll bury you with information on how to catch fish up there, species by species. Some differences compared to Southern fishing, our water is gin clear to 20' in this area, so the choice of lures, bait and presentation style are different.

Also, in May it would not be unusual to get snowed/sleeted on, so your gear should reflect this. You can also have bluebird days with sunny skies and temps in the high 60s. The water however will be an icy 47 degrees or colder on big water like Basswood, a bit warmer on shallower lakes. This is viewed as a fairly dangerous time of year - if you fall in or capsize even with a PFD you can be in serious trouble in a matter of minutes. This means that you need to paddle close to shore on big water and be very wary of wind and chop especially if you are not very experienced paddlers.

Are you self outfitting or using a commercial service?

Good advice from Beemer.

The BW ain't Disneyland, especially in spring (don't let me deter you, just prepare, be safe & keep alert). Trust me; the last thing you want to do in May up here is swamp your canoe (yes, that's the voice of experience). In summer it's most likely going to be an inconvenience, in May its got the potential be a (very) fine line between life & death. If you do swamp, the closer you are to shore, the better your chances of being able to tell your buddies a war story.

My simple logic states that its ALWAYS better to laugh about something later than to become a statistic at the moment.

Also, more than once I've woken up to inches of snow on the tent during opening day of fishing when there wasn't any on the ground the day before. This situation is not very conducive to a good attitude when you forget your warm clothes in the truck (also the voice of experience).

With a little preparation and caution you will have the time of your life!

It'll be us by ourselves. He wants to go straight across the middle of Basswood to get to the other side. I'll remind him of the bad wind.

OK, be cautious.

What kind of canoe do you have?

we're thinking of bringing our own. It's an eighteen foot aluminum old town and it's about 70-85 pounds. we've always carried it wherever we've taken it but four days in the wilderness might be a little different.

sorry. meant fiberglass. we're considering renting an aluminum

Hmm. Aluminum canoes are easily rented and fairly inexpensive up there.

Some of us here might suggest saving your collective backs and renting a Kevlar canoe instead. Few more bucks but you'll thank me on the first portage.

Be cautious traveling down Basswood. In spring the wind can get pretty nasty.

Probably the worst area on the east end is around Washington Island. When the wind is whistling out of the northwest that area can be hairy for a boat!

Alright. How many lures do people typically bring? I got 3 super magnum plano tackle bags with 6 6-21 cases full of lures and going to probably fill up another with new lures for up here. Obviously not bringing more than one but should I just get a smaller tackle bag or would one of the bags be okay. Just worried I'll have too much stuff traveling while we're trying to make camp.

Are you ready for this? Your total collection of lures should not exceed what can be fit into a cigar box. Or more practically a single Plano tray. Three med weight rods, three reels and you two are all set.

Always remember, you guys have to carry everything over hill and dale. This means steep, rocky and muddy - often on the same portage.

A good book to buy your dad for an early Father's day is BWCA Fishing by Michael Furtman. You can buy it from Piragis.com up in Ely, among other vendors.

BMW, I agree about the Michael Furtman book. I was going to post the Amazon link for it, but I went there and found this, “A Boundary Waters Fishing Guide”. It says it’s being released April 2008. I know the copy I have has a different cover, so now I’m wondering if it is a new edition or a completely different book. I’m guessing a new edition.

So, shorty, it looks like you’ll have to find a copy on ebay or a used book store, or wait till April to get it. Still, it is worth getting.

BTW – the last time I was on Wood lake (years ago) there was a slot limit on northerns. All northerns between (I’m guessing) 20” and 30” had to be returned. So, you could only keep little ones or big ones. My son and his friend did catch a lot of northerns but they were all about 24” and had to be returned.

Lures to consider -

Traditional Rapalas - gold and black -3-4" sizes
Daredevle Spoons - Red and White - Standard size
Diving Rapalas - assorted colors 3-4"
1/4 oz. Jig rigged with yellow twistertails.
Bucktail spinner baits for Northerns (Note, when targeting these guys ALWAYS use a steel leader to avoid biteoffs)

Those will get you Bass, Northerns and Walleyes.

If you want May Lakers - and they can be caught on some of the deeper lakes (>90' deep) - fish them shallow at 8-15' down - I've had success with silver and blue Rapalas, rigged with a 1/2 oz weight 8' in front of the lure to get it to the proper depth and then slowly trolling it behind the canoe. A compact fish finder will help this quest.

Others will add to / subtract from this list.

Damn Beemer, me and you think alike sometimes. I just posted fishing advice to our mississippi friend over in the Fishing section and our lure choices and tactics are eerily similar.