Hey All!

Looking for some potential advice about an upcoming trip through EP 30. We're planning on heading out early across the numbered chain and into Lake Insula the first week of June. We had originally planned on fishing for walleye and pike on Insula but I'd really like to catch my first laker if possible over the four days that we are there.

Just curious if anybody has any advice as far as tackle/methods go as well as the portage up to Thomas Lake from Insula. I'm bringing two med fast action 6lb test setups and most of my tackle is jigs, crankbaits, soft plastics and inline spinners. I was thinking about grabbing some jigging spoons and potentially a few rapala tail dancers that I've heard so much about here if we do decide to go for lake trout. I also have a 7.5 ft med heavy rod with 20lb braid that could potentially(?) be more effective for trolling.

No one in the party has a depth finder which i realize will make it much more difficult to find fish especially on a deeper lake.

I understand that nobody wants to give their spots away but again any advice or specifics that you guys think would be helpful would be much appreciated.

If you only have four days on the water, getting to Thomas and still expecting to fish much is a tall order. Getting to insula is a full day already. Even if your group is made up of only efficient paddlers and portagers, you’re still looking at 1.5-2 days to get to Thomas from EP 30. My advice would be to save going for lakers for another trip, or to push hard, get to northern Insula day one, set up a base camp, and try to reach Thomas from the base camp on a day trip.

I’ve been through Insula three times in June. You can frequently find smallmouth, like and walleye there. Use the TGO method along ahorelines, especially early and late in the day. Fish the bottom of the rapids coming into Hudson before you portage into Insula. The walleye are frequently stacked up there, so if you drop a 1/8 or 1/4 oz jig with a leech on it you should catch fish. The narrows at the northern end of insula are supposed to be good, but I’ve never caught any special numbers there.

I spent a week on Thomas Lake in June of 2012. I did well for pike and we caught a few decent walleye as well. Didn’t catch any smallmouth or Lake Trout despite trying.

With your limited time, I would personally just push hard to get to northern insula and enjoy that area. Just my thoughts!