Planning 4 night trip for week of August 21 out of Rockwood on Poplar.
I'm not much of an angler but my trip partner is. I think he could throw an empty hook in a roadside ditch and catch something!
Thinking to base camp on Gaskin or Vista, which would we have better luck fishing that time of year?
My thoughts are on Vista take day trips to Jake, Lux, Carl, Morgan.
On Gaskin if they aren't biting we could pack up and move on to Winchell and make loop up through Omega, Henson, Pillsbury.

Lure suggestions welcome too!

Thanks,

Blue Skies!
cc

My experience on all those lakes you mentioned has been pretty similar as far as fishing goes. They were all decent. Morgan probably produced the most for us. Carl has a ton of smaller northern . Only real standout memory fishing there was some nice lakers on Misquah next to Vista. They were large and had salmon colored flesh. Delish! Caught them on 30foot taildancers about that time of year.

There's really only one good campsite on Vista (the southern most one...and she is a beaut). If that site is not available (which I doubt it will be, it's extremely popular, kind of like the Little Caribou site in East BWCA) the other two on Vista are pretty terrible so that alone might determine where you base camp. The sites on Misquah, Lux, and Carl aren't good either (but certainly private if you aren't picky on campsite quality). There are some really nice sites on Horseshoe and Gaskin. I expect you'd be able to get one of those for a basecamp.

Thank you DJ

Cc

Just got back from a 5 day trip to Gaskin and Horseshoe. Spent 3 nights on Gaskin and 1 on Horseshoe. Fishing was somewhat disappointing compared to what we are used to. We bring live bait, electronics, and fish hard. We scratched out a few meals of walleyes on Gaskin on the main lake reefs, and few smallies in the back bays on topwaters. Gaskin is beautiful, with very little traffic and few really cool campsites. We ended up seeing 8 moose on the trip, so your changes are great at seeing some in that area.

Horseshoe was the busiest lake I've ever seen in the bdubs. I would bet in the 2 days we were on that lake, we saw 25 canoes, easy. We must have got really lucky to get a site, because every one was taken, and the second we pulled up, we had group after group of disappointed canoers pulling up only to see it was taken.... Fishing was a bust on Horseshoe as well, a few small pike and smallies.

The reports from everyone we talked to was slow, so maybe it was just not happening that week. Not to mention our "slow" fishing might be considered good to some... I just have high expectations...

Also got skunked for lakers on Winchell, but didn't fish that hard. Cool lake, but got windy in the afternoon.

Walked the portage to Vista, looked sweet. I would be tempted to push your chips in the middle and go for the south campsite.

Good luck!

-Wily

My first 40 inch plus Pike came out of Omega and My third came out of Horse shoe. I like Vista, all game fish are present in the area.

Thanks for replies.
2 months of anticipating left!

Blue Skies!
cc

Our group will be in that area the first week of August. Basecamping on Gaskin for a few days with day trips to Winchel and other lakes. Then a few days on Meeds with a bushwack to Moon.

We can report if you wish.

Air morse
Look forward to hearing about your trip and the fishing.
Hope you have legad time!

Blue Skies!
cc

Airmorse
How was your trip and the fishing?

We stayed on Gaskin for three nights b4 moving to Meeds for two nights.

We count on fish for at least one meal per day.

We ate ONE fish dinner all week and that was our last day in. So the fishing was the worst I've ever experienced in the BW. We came out a day early.

We fished all day...Weed beds, reefs, deep water all types of presentations. They were just not hungry. We spoke to a group and they said they did real well on Pillsbury catching walleye. And we spoke to a different group that said the fishing on Gaskin was awesome a few weeks prior to our trip.

I hope you have better luck.

We stayed on the peninsula site on the west end of Gaskin by the islands. Awesome site. Lots of Moose sign. Moose plums and rubs on trees. Most portages had Moose tracks in the mud. I hope you get to see one.

The closed site to the west of that holds the largest raspberry patch I have ever seen, football fields in size.

We stayed on the middle site on Meeds and it was nice as well.

Have a safe trip an let me know how you did.

I'll post some pictures when I get the chance.

Thanks for the report and pictures AM, bummer bout the fishing.

We head north tomorrow and on the water Monday.

Blue Skies!

cc

I based camped on Gaskin for 4 days in July 2013 and fishing was very slow for us. I did catch large SMBass on way out and that was the best fish for me and the Walleye bite was far and few between. The campsite we stayed was awesome and was on the west side if the lake where there is some islands and a small bay.

But I very much regret not base camping on Vista....