A few of my fellow buddy's from the Navy are meeting up for our yearly BW trip and thinking base camping on Rose lake might be a good trip but im open to other ideas. We've already dont the Johnson Loop and based on North Pike last year which both were amazing trips. Does anyone have any insight on Rose or other similar trips. We're looking for solid fishing and prefer to stay in grand marnis area. I've heard Rose might be busy so any ideas on best camps, fishing spots or just advice would be greatly appreciated. Also I notice the Canada border runs threw the lake, whats the laws on fishing the Canadian side?

Do you mean West Pike for last year's trip? I love that lake.

Rose is gorgeous. It can get heavily used with all campsites taken, even before Memorial Day. I really like the first campsite on the left as you enter Rose from the Staircase portage.

I've heard the bass fishing is very good in the summer near the falls. In May, fishing below the falls is useless. I've caught very nice bass in May but no concentrations of them. The DNR says Rose has walleyes, but I've never caught one there, but I haven't tried very hard. I have caught lake trout there, including some nice ones, but I've worked *very* hard for them.

Daniels is only three short (or one long) portage from Rose; lots of small lake trout there, so you shouldn't have to go hungry. If you are interested in reliable catching, you could base camp on Daniels and day trip to Rose. You can make a circle from Daniels-Rose-Duncan-West Bearskin-Daniels. I've done that a couple times. The long portage from Rose to Daniels has a beaver dam across the creek; last time I was there I was wading up to my crotch.

If you have a Canadian license, and potentially Remote Area Border Crossing permit, you can fish the Canadian side of Rose. Otherwise, stay on the U.S. side. The fines are stiff and not worth it. If you have the RABC, Arrow Lake has a really cool cliff/rock slide you can paddle next to. It's a fun day trip from Rose. The wind can be really punishing on Arrow.

Agree that the Duncan - Daniels loop (or vice-versa) would be a great trip. Lots of fantastic things to see in that area. We incorporated it into a trip we did a few years back . Trip report

When are you planning to go?

If you time it right, the smallmouth fishing in Rose can be AMAZING. But I guess that's true of pretty much every BWCA/Q lake, so that's probably not news.

As someone else has said, Daniels has decent numbers of trout (we do better on the west end). Rose has some big fish, but I've not been all that successful at finding them consistently.

RPike: You wrote: Arrow Lake has a really cool cliff/rock slide you can paddle next to.

Where is it exactly? Thanks.