Planning on either going the 2nd week of June, or the 3rd week of July (pending time off from work). There will only be 2 of us and we will be staying 6-7 days. We will be fishing everyday.
I was thinking about setting up base camp on Lynx Lake (if we can find an open site) or Shell Lake if no sites on Lynx.
Looking at the maps, Lynx appears to be a great place to base camp from, and would provide many options for daily exploration and fishing of the other nearby lakes, such as Shell, Hustler, Heritage and maybe even an attempt to bushwack into Warpaint Lake.
We like to explore and fish!

A few questions:
#1: I have read that the portage into Shell can be swampy, can anyone confirm this and offer any tips. We typically travel heavy, so we will have to make 2 back and forth trips every portage.

#2: Any suggestions based on what I have outlined above. Any recommendations of "must do" lakes?

Last year, we based at Fourtown Lake. The portages into it were a bit rough (rocky), but the lake was great. We found a great spot near our campsite, that produced a bunch of Walleye (small to medium) and even caught a few Smallmouth and Bluegill right off the bank at camp!

Hey there!

We set up shop on Lynx last May - on the SE campsite. It was a BEAUTY with a view like no other.

Technically speaking - the portages are easier than your Mudro - Fourtown trip.
the Shell Lake portage is longish, and annoying since you have to reportage/paddle about 10 feet where the beavers flooded the portage.

We really liked Heritage Lake, and really wanted to go to Agawato. I hear there is good bass fishing in there, and is a super short paddle from the SE campsite on Lynx.

Trip Report from Lynx/Shell trip

Lynx is a good place to base camp and usually less traffic than Shell. I caught some really nice walleye on Lynx. Consider portaging into Yodeler Lake; it's full of large mouth bass.

Thanks for the head up on Yodeler Lake.
If the water level is up while we are there, and we can paddle a large part of the creek, we may definitely give it a go.

Planning a very similar trip this year! Any advice to share about the area?

Take a day trip to Devil's Cascade if you want to see some moving water and steep rock bank. Motor boat potential on Loon if you choose to go farther north from there