Hey fellas (and ladies). This will be my 7th trip up to the great BWCA May 20th-24th. My girlfriend is a newbie and has never been, and we are going with my buddy who is also experienced. I'm having a very tough time deciding if I want to focus more of my fishing in Back Bay for northerns, bluegill and crappie. (I'm on the hunt for BIG northern), or camp in Wind Bay so I have the option to troll and cast deeper water for eyes. Anyone have experience on either of these? I'm fine with catching giant gills and casting topwater for northern, BUT I love walleyes!!

We are launching from Fall Lake and probably ending at Wood. Thanks!

I heard Jackfish Bay might have some monster jacks (pike) lurking in her depths ;) Big topwater pike like to hit Lucky 13s in a bullfrog color.

Split the difference.

I may have heard that hoist bay is ok for northerns :)

Late May. Don't forget to jig wAlleye on Louis narrows

I'd go with back bay

Wind bay? Is that on the way to Indiana lake? We camped on that island before the creek and eased around that bay for a while. Good place to see a moose..........We only fished a few hours but I got the impression that bay was rather shallow but I could be wrong........good for real early in the year?

quote nakednorthern: "Hey fellas (and ladies). This will be my 7th trip up to the great BWCA May 20th-24th. My girlfriend is a newbie and has never been, and we are going with my buddy who is also experienced. I'm having a very tough time deciding if I want to focus more of my fishing in Back Bay for northerns, bluegill and crappie. (I'm on the hunt for BIG northern), or camp in Wind Bay so I have the option to troll and cast deeper water for eyes. Anyone have experience on either of these? I'm fine with catching giant gills and casting topwater for northern, BUT I love walleyes!!

We are launching from Fall Lake and probably ending at Wood. Thanks!"

You may try Frog Bay, it is north from Wind. Good structure, weeds and reefs.

Ive fished that area quite a few times and if you want monster pike I would say winf bay but if you want a mix of it all I would do hoist bay and back bay. Im heading up this weekend ill let ya know how it goes!

What have you found is the best way to get into big Northerns in Wind Bay? How deep of water would you typically target? Me and my 2 compadres have had a tough time finding big pike in Basswood.

quote KingsOfCatchCole: "What have you found is the best way to get into big Northerns in Wind Bay? How deep of water would you typically target? Me and my 2 compadres have had a tough time finding big pike in
Basswood."

I was up last week in may last year and had some great northern fishing. We were on hoist bay but I've got to assume it's pretty similar. We just trolled our canoe around 8ft (which is most of the bay) and had one after the other- most around the 4lb range.

quote QueticoMike: "I heard Jackfish Bay might have some monster jacks (pike) lurking in her depths ;) Big topwater pike like to hit Lucky 13s in a bullfrog color."

Jackfish Bay at the south end, near several islands is an area that a few locals used to catch Pike in the 20 pound range.
Fish in about 4-10 feet of water with a frozen Smelt either laying on the bottom, or suspended with a bobber.
Those big Pike cruise the shallows this time of year.