My two brothers, dad and I have decided to do the Fall Lake to Mudro route for our second boundary waters trip. We leave in about a week and will be staying 5 nights. Our main goal is to try to get a lot of fishing in, hopefully getting on some nice walleyes. We are all very experienced fisherman but know very little about fishing this area. Just wondering if anyone had any tips or suggestions for this route? Any cool sites we need to make sure we stop and check out? Any favorite campsite suggestions? Any things we should try to avoid or be aware of on this route? The route we are intending on taking can be seen below. It wouldnt let me post a link to the route so i attached a copy of it instead. Any deviations we should make? Thanks a ton for any help!

I have paddled this route many times both with a group, and solo. IMHO, you will not be doing much fishing in such short of time. Coming from Fall Lake, that's a pretty big haul with some BIG water mixed in.
This is a great route with lots of potential along the way in regards to fishing and campsites. However, this is more of a paddle trip in that timeframe. For your second trip ever....ooofta!!

Do you have an idea as to where you want to end up each night? Basswood has several nice sites on the top of Pipestone Bay. Basswood River had a decent site or two as well. Crooked has many sites, as it's a very large lake. Keep in mind that this time of year is still quite busy, especially this area, so keep an open mind when looking for a site for the night.

In regards to fishing this route, you'll have endless opportunities. Since you stated you are all experienced fishermen, stay focused on your typical haunts for Walleye. There will be MANY areas of current to fish, and usually they hold a few species no matter what time of year. Weed edges, islands, rocky points, mouths of bays close to deep water, etc. Live bait (IMO) is always worth the hassle. Leeches and crawlers worked well for me earlier this week up there.

Again, this is a great route but a pretty big area to cover in 5 days, especially if fishing is top priority. Make sure everyone is ready to travel decent distance each day, without many stops along the way to fish. Lastly.....I just posted to a previous member that Mudro entry is VERY LOW water right now and there are several pullovers and a beaver damn to negotiate. Those little nuicences add up, so keep that in mind!

I don't think he intends to paddle up through Friday & down so should be fine for 6 days/5 nights.

I've had groups do this in 3 nights/4 days and still have some time for fishing.

Start at Fall, get up to non motorized zone in 6-7 hours & camp. 2nd day go up & west, passing the waterfalls, camp by the falls near top of Horse River, about 4 - 5 hours tops. Fish around that area, maybe see the pictographs.

4th day/ paddle down the Horse River & set up camp for a few nights on Horse. Fish there and come out of Horse in 2-3 hours.

oops, duplicate, weird.

I agree that 5 nights is plenty of time for this route. Last time we entered at Fall Lake, our group of 4 made it to Lower Basswood Falls the first day, double portaging (9 - 10 hours). To provide you with some good fishing, you could split it up something like:

Day 1 to Basswood Lake near or just before the long portage around Basswood Falls. (1 night)

Day 2 to area around Lower Basswood Falls (2 nights). This would be a short travel day to allow fishing, and also 1 lay-over day for fishing around the falls area and visiting the pictographs just north of Lower Basswood Falls.

Day 4 to Horse Lake or Fourtown Lake (2 nights). This will again give you 1 lay-over day to fish Horse and/or Fourtown Lake.

Day 6 will be a short day out to Mudro entry.

Correct, we wont be going all the way to Friday bay. We will be heading southwest toward horse lake once we get to lower basswood falls. Thank you for the suggestions so far. Couple more questions.

Is Jackfish Bay worth stopping in for the first day to spend some time fishing or would we be better off continuing on to find something better? I was thinking we could take that small portage through from Pipestone Bay and stay at one of those sites around the corner, hoping to snag the one on the island. Not set on this by any means though.

Anywhere we'd be better off stopping in order to get some fishing in on the first day?

Is fishing around lower basswood falls pretty good?

Through the research ive done, it sounds like horse lake and fourtown are some of the best for walleye along this route. I was thinking, if we had a little extra time that we would shoot over to Fourtown from Horse lake and spend day 5 there before heading to mudro day 6. Would you guys suggest that or should we just stay put longer on horse and learn the lake a little better?

Any general areas on either lake we should focus on or try to camp near?

Will the walleyes during the day be pretty deep this late in the year? Most of my walleye fishing has been in Canada during the spring and early summer so not overly experienced in targeting walleyes in august.

Thanks for any help!

Great area to explore, fish, and paddle. Basswood Lake is BIG, so get going early DAY 1 to avoid wind. If you do not get through the motorized part of Basswood on your first day and need a place to camp, I highly recommend campsite 1589 on Pipestone Bay just before the non-motorized part of Basswood. Plenty of room, you're on a point to the east, south, and west, so a great chance to see a sunset and sunrise. Best sandy beach I've ever seen in the BW and good fishing around the island just off the campsite.

I've never been north of that area nor have I seen the upper Basswood Falls (bucket list) but I have been to the Lower Basswood Falls, Horse River, Horse, Fourtown, and Mudro in late October of 2010. We fished the LBF for about three hours and had no luck, but also had no live bait, either. The falls themselves provided plenty of entertainment enough -- make sure you find a site up in this area if you can to camp -- check out the pictographs and the old ranger cabin.

As you paddle down to Horse Lake via the Horse River, keep in mind you'll be going against the current (albeit light). There are three portages on that river, but you'll likely have to maneuver/portage 3-4 additional times if the river is low (and I'm sure it is as the Mudro EP is shallow). We didn't fish the Horse River at all as we day tripped from Horse Lake to LBF and back with limited daylight (and we had to high-tail it back to our campsite before darkness fell at 6:30 PM).

If you camp on Horse Lake, two spots I'd recommend are:

1116 - It's the one right at the start of the Horse River on the east-central side of Horse Lake. An amazing peninsula that juts out to the west and another one that goes to the south with a super sandy beach in between, so more great opportunities to see sunrise/sunset. Northerns were biting really well about 30 feet offshore when we camped there for three nights in late October. Two negatives -- this site is used heavily and there's little protection from the wind.

1119 - It's on the south west side of the lake on the narrow channel. There are two sites on the southern side of the lake -- it's the northern most site. We didn't camp there, but we stopped there heading into Horse Lake as we took cover from a SNOW SHOWER (yes...SNOW SHOWER). We had just portaged into the lake when we were doused by a whiteout of snow, so we paddled like crazy to that sight to wait it out! A beautiful site -- this area sees a lot of people, but you'll have solitude up at this site and be protected by wind. We didn't fish, but I've read that the walleye fishing just off shore in the channel is pretty legit! Also, there's a relic from the logging days on the rock facing of the shore adjacent to the site - pretty cool!

The river/waterway from Horse to Fourtown is very scenic and has potential if you cast a line (again, we didn't fish it, but we had to use daylight to paddle). Fourtown is littered with awesome campsites from what I saw as we paddled through down to Mudro...be VERY CAREFUL on the portages from Fourtown to Mudro -- the first one is 10 rods but it's literally like going up a wall (to the south) -- all rock. The middle one isn't so bad, but has some treacherous corners/cliffs while you walk -- scenic, but watch your step. The last one is just plain rocky but level.

ENJOY YOUR TRIP!! A GREAT PLACE TO VISIT!! GOOD LUCK!!

Awesome. Thanks a ton!

Is Jackfish worth stopping at for the first day to do some fishing or should we push on? We will be getting on the water around 9am the 25th.