Hello,

I will be taking a group in Mid-May up to the northern part of Basswood, and am thinking about spending a few days up the Basswood river. In previous experience, has the Basswood River produced on Smallies/Walleyes in Mid to late May? Just trying to figure out if its worth the effort.

You should be able to find fish below the falls.

find moving water and you will find smallies. There is a bunch of moving water in the Basswood River. Fish the eddies with natural colored tubes with 1/8 oz inserts. You will also catch walleyes. I like to hike the 320 rod portage out of Ranger/Pipestone Bay down through the falls and just fish any spot that looks like it has some good water near current lines/bluff lines/chunk rock etc... places where smallies love to hang out. At the bottom of that portage trail is some really interesting spots where I caught lots of smallies and walleye at the same time on crawdad type plastics Texas rigged. Have fun cuz its a beautiful place

Thanks for the info! Also, just to double check, we are okay with fishing/camping in the Basswood area with just Minnesota licenses/BWCA permits as long as we camp on the U.S. side, correct?

If you fish on the Quetico side like say Ranger Bay of Basswood you must have an Ontario fishing liscense and Sportsmans card. You must also obtain a vehicular pass which I believe you can get at Prairie Portage. I think that is correct at least that is what I used to do when I camped in BW and fished Quetico and Minnesota both. Not a bad option as BW camping is much less expensive.

Do they not require a RABC to enter the Canadian side to fish?