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 Boundary Waters Quetico Forum Trip Planning Forum Going in later this year.... Reply
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| Previous Messages: | |
| Author | Message Text |
| lindylair |
04/29/2018 07:40PM Mike, Great area, you're going to love it. We made it all the way to Malberg the first day but it was a long day for us old guys. We also stayed at site 1051 and it was nice. But we got bored with it and moved on to the southern island site on River Lake and I would highly recommend it. Great walleye fishing in the area and just a beautiful spot. The burn was interesting on the way up to Polly, then it is gone. Check out site 1054 on Malberg at the beginning of the long eastern arm; we only stopped there for lunch but caught some nice fish. I think that if you camped there, you could have excellent luck fishing from camp without even getting in the canoe. I also have a trip report if you are interested, with some photos of the burn area, Malberg and River Lake and the campsites in the area. Enjoy! |
| Jaywalker |
04/29/2018 05:52PM You won't be too far from Fishdance Lake. The pictos there are pretty cool. |
| boonie |
04/29/2018 05:36PM I've been through there 3X (different loops) - see my trip reports 2013, 2014, 2016. There are a lot of directions you can go from Malberg/Polly. Get an early start. I usually stay on Polly the first night on the N end. It's about 9 miles double portaging and takes about 4 hours. Not terribly hard, but depending on water levels, you may have longer portages or skip one two. Same holds with beaver dams; last time I skipped a portage, had an extra beaver dam carry around. Nothing too hard, but the last two portages are separated by a very short paddle. It goes through the edge of the Pagami Creek wildfire burn and is a nice paddle up from Kawishiwi. I have stayed at the campsite mvillasuso mentioned on Malberg a couple of times and it's nice, but if it rains there will be a river right through the seating area/fire pit. I also like the "narrows" site #1053. The Kawishiwi River is a nice paddle and there are some small pictos at Fishdance Lake to the SW. I have a number of pictures posted at my Shutterfly site from those trips; I think there's a link in the trip reports, but if not, just ask. |
| mvillasuso |
04/29/2018 03:17PM I did that trip as my first trip to BWCA. Worst mosquitoes I have experienced in BWCA. This was back in 2011. The fishing on the Kawishiwi river is fantastic for big smallmouth and big pike, too. River Lake and Fishdance Lake are worth a day trip. Cool pictographs, cliffs, and nice rapids to fish above and below. It was a hot summer, and we only caught 4 or 5 walleyes in 9 days. The bass fishing was really good, only a few bass in the 15-17" range on Malberg, though. Mostly 12-14" fish. We caught lots of big bass between Record and Fishdance. At night, we observed TONS of rusty crayfish on Polly. If we had brought a trap, we could have had an enormous boil the following day. Without moving the flashlight, we once counted 8 crayfish. The numbers were staggering. We didn't fish there, but there must be a lot of well-fed smallmouth bass in that lake. Campsite 1051 on Malberg has a great beach and landing. Wonderful during the day, during dusk, the mosquitoes were bad. The air was quite still the 3 nights we stayed there. Maybe that accounts for the bugs. |
| MikeinMpls |
04/29/2018 02:59PM ...my wife and I always take our first trip of the year in May, but due to schedules and work things, we've had to put it off until July. We prefer May, but there certainly are advantages to July, namely swimming and the BWCA in full bloom of summer. We're going in through Kawishiwi Lake, up to Polly, Malberg, then likely reversing our course. I've not been to Polly or Malberg, so we're really looking forward to exploring the area. Anything of interest or things I ought to know for that area? We're very experienced paddlers/campers, though we know little of the area. I've done a bit of map recon as to the campsites, especially on Polly. It looks like it's a very busy area. Just wondering if anyone had any pointers or tidbits regarding the route. Thanks Mike |
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