I am leading a group of 4 of us for a trip in early June to the Clearwater Lake EP and our plan is either to stay on Caribou or Little Caribou Lake. Does anyone who is familiar with this area have any advice on which lake we should stay at? From a bit of reading on here, it sounds like the one campsite on Little Caribou is nicer but the walleye fishing is better on Caribou. Also, the one site on Little Caribou is often times taken. We plan on heading to Johnson Falls on a day trip as well.

Also, can anyone provide help finding the walleyes on either lake? Any tips would be greatly appreciated!!

The site on Lil Caribou is nice......nicer to have lake to yourself. Always a crap shoot to get it. We got it last August even though I told my kids it would never happen and had a plan B ready. People were loading their canoes to leave as we paddled by. Dumb luck. There is a really nice site on Caribou towards east end (rock steps site) that can handle a group of 4 easily. It's not a long portage into Lil Caribou so it would not be a hassle to pop in and back out.
We did catch some walleyes off the campsite and I have before by trolling the eastern basin.
Beautiful portage over to Pine. Don't paddle to the Pine/Canoe portage to go to Johnson Falls. Instead, paddle up into the little, far west bay, beach the canoes and pick the trail up right there.
The trail splits way far back from the falls. Trail along the creek goes to lower falls, left trail bypasses lower falls and goes to upper falls. You can go to lower falls and then do a minor cliff climb to access upper trail. Also another spur off left of upper trail that goes way up to top of upper falls.

Agreed that the site on Little Caribou is very nice and having the lake all to yourselves is a good experience. But if it is taken you will have to backtrack to Caribou or go on to Pine - not the end of the world. Reports are that Little Caribou lake had a strange algae bloom last year and the lake water was literally green. Now that would be weird. The folks that camped drank the water and swam there and lived to tell about it but...not sure that's something I want to do. Perhaps it will be different this year.

Caribou is a nice lake and there are several nice sites. As you get to the east end there is a site with a little island in front of it, not on all maps. It is a great site with a lakefront living room and tent sites back in the trees. Good views of both sunset and sunrise.

We had great fishing there but it was all smallies. Because the smallies were so good we didn't really try for eyes but they are reportedly there.

Johnson Falls is an easy day trip from there and well worth it. In early June the water could still be chilly but the lower falls has a great swimming hole and you absolutely have to jump in!! There is a trail to the upper falls that you wouldn't even know was there if you hadn't read about it. The upper falls is even more interesting.

Here is our trip report with some pics of Caribou Lake, the campsite and Johnson Falls:


Caribou Lake and Johnson Falls

If the furthest East site on Caribou is open I'd take that one, but you can always just have one person from your group run across the portage to see if site on Little Caribou is open. That way you don't have to lug all your stuff across just to turn around again.

Yeah, our plan is to bring walkie talkies and split up at the far eastern site on Caribou and have one of the 2 canoes go to Little Caribou and see if it is taken. Our outfitter is telling me that the walleye fishing on Caribou is better than Little Caribou. We will definitely be heading over to Johnson Falls.

On Caribou(western part) there are 2 points that come off the north end.
Have caught many walleye off the western point. The eastern point had a rock pile off of it with deep water adjacent. There are rapids that enter this part of the lake on the southern shore. Centered between the western point and the western most camp site there is a submerged rock pile. The eastern basin is shallow and has a lot of weed growth. At this time of year this will be the warmest part of the lake and the weeds shouldn't be to thick.

quote bposteve: "If the furthest East site on Caribou is open I'd take that one, but you can always just have one person from your group run across the portage to see if site on Little Caribou is open. That way you don't have to lug all your stuff across just to turn around again."

That site is nice for evening sun, a bit starved for morning sun as it faces west. Has a neat stepped rocks on a raised face. I think the Little Caribou site is over rated and traffic ends up being really close since its such a small lake.

A view from that Caribou campsite: