Hello all my fellow anglers. My best friend and I have done several canoe trips into the BW and Quetico. However this year, due to a serious back issue for my friend, we are looking at options where we can use a motor boat. I know it wont be the same but we want to get off the grid and catch fish regardless. I don't know much at all about the lakes in the BW where we can use a motor, except for the names of them.

What we are looking for, and need advice on, are the best lakes to fish for walleye and smallmouth. That's number one. The second would be for any recommendations on a campsite that would give us a bit of what we all look for on our adventures, seclusion and the feeling of being the only people on the lake.

We are looking at going late August or early September. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Mitch

Anyone have any experience fishing the Moose, Newfound, Sucker chain of lakes?

Or Fall and Newton Lakes?

You will find Walleye, Smallmouth, Northern, etc. in the Moose Lake chain however, you may not be able to get a motor permit for that entry since it appears they are mostly taken at this time . There are a couple Moose to Basswood #25 permits as of this moment for the first week in September Moose Lake entry You could take the truck portage into Basswood which is loaded with fish. I didn't check Fall lake for permits.
You may have a better chance if you can go up the Gunflint to Sea Gull or Saganaga where you find the fish also. If you go to Sea Gull you can use a 10 HP max outboard on portion of the lake and 25 HP is allowed on Saganaga. Have fun wherever you end up and welcome to the board!

Duboly, Thank you for that info. I will look into Basswood and Sag as well. I have camped over on Sag for a night and the fishing was great. It is a huge lake. Is Basswood a very large lake as well?

Yes I have been blown off of Bailey Bay of Basswood many times. It is a huge lake as you can tell by looking over the maps. If you use good judgement and stay alert you will be fine there. I usually manage a few trips there every year along with hitting many of the other lakes in the park. We made more trips to Basswood than I can count since my dad started hauling me up there in 1958. We have seen the lake look like glass many times too and lots of wildlife. Check in with Latourell's outfitters (they run the truck portage on Prairie Portage too) if you need outfitting. If you choose Saganaga and need outfitting Voyager Canoe Outfitters and Seagull Outfitters are both excellent people to deal through. I have used services of both and they have gone up and beyond the call of duty for us.

I'm not sure if you're specifically married to official BWCA motor lakes, but Voyageurs National Park is always an option for motorized travel as well. If you're willing to fish Basswood and Sag, then Kab, Namakan, Sand Point and Rainy aren't too big for you either (OK maybe Rainy might be). If you launch out of Ash River, you can avoid a lot of big water.

You get the same scenery, the campsite are really nice and the fishing is outstanding. There will quite a bit more motorized traffic, but it's still way quieter than any other major lake in MN .

You may already know this, but I wanted to be sure that you understood that you cannot use a regular overnight permit. It must be the difficult to obtain overnight motor permits. These are best obtained soon after the permit season opens as I believe the lottery for these permits ends after this year.