I'm going into ep16 moose river at the end of may and have a few questions about the area. we are a crew of 7 all mid 30's and active fit outdoorsmen. can agnes be reached in on the frist day with an early start? are there musky in agnes, oyster,ramshead, moose? are leeches and nightcrawlers a must have? should we spend any time on ram and moose or focus on llc? oyster and agnes equal but diiferent? (fish numbers, avg size, fishing pressure) any info or tips on rigs/lure types would be great. thanks to all. keep'm tight

If you get an early start you can be on LLC around 1 PM. No muskies in the area. Never been to Ramshead, but lakers can be had on Oyster in the time frame you're looking at. Agnes is a very popular lake that time of year. It contains lots of eater size walleyes, some big northerns , SMB and also has crappies. Busy lake.

awesome thanks for the info. i'm from the east coast... what exactly is a laker? is it a rainbow lake trout aka steelhead?

Laker is a Lake Trout.

You can bring leeches, but make sure you bring crawlers too. You didn't mention quite when in May you are going in at #16 Moose River.

if real early, you could buy a few frozen bait fish (like smelt/ciscoes) and go over to Oyster for the lake trout. Not sure how deep they will be but that is a common item to bring in spring.

thanks for the tip. we are going may 20-27. are there any muskys in the llc above agnes

Muskie doesn't open until 6-3 so you guys will be there too early for that one

good to know thanks. the more i'm looking at the maps, begining to think about heading to Ge-be-on-e-quet. then in to the llc heading east. any experience on gboeq or this part of the llc?

There are no Muskie in that area but Ramshead has large northerns. Early season should be good.

Great tip thanks. Anyone with some experience at GeBeQ and or llc to the east of GBQ ? Fish types, average size fishing pressure during late may. Thanks keep' tight

A good sight to play around on with trip planning is the Minnesota DNR Lakefinder page. Not all of the BWCA lakes have updated surveys, but many of them do. From the fisheries surveys you can usually get a pretty good idea of what lakes have what fish, what the size structure of those fish are, and what the water clarity often is.
Main website can be found:
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefind/index.html

Example of what you may come up with.
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefind/showreport.html?downum=69035000

I fish this area every year around that time. Jigs and leeches work well. The north side of Agnes all the way into LLC there are gorgeous camp sites and good fishing. Enjoy. This is a fun area, though somewhat busy. The river entry is a fun paddle.

quote Dale83: "Great tip thanks. Anyone with some experience at GeBeQ and or llc to the east of GBQ ? Fish types, average size fishing pressure during late may. Thanks keep' tight "

I have gone thru these areas several times - usually a little later first weeks of June - Walleye fishing is good in GeBeQ eating size.... East of GeBeQ ? -I have gone as far as Iron Lake ...Iron Lake is a good destination Fishing and waterfalls ...Great Walleye ; Smallmouth Bass and Pike fishing

Like Mr. Barley mentioned, getting an early start will get you to just about anywhere you mentioned on the first day, Agnes is reachable in a few hours.

Jigs and plain hooks with leeches will produce walleyes all over on this route. If you find a concentration of walleyes a slip bobber with a plain hook and leech can be deadly. The smallmouth bass might not be in full blown topwater mode at this time but you should be able to find them fairly shallow.

Live bait rigs / lindy rigs with crawlers have also worked great for us this time of year.