Heading up this way mid-august with a group of 8 for a quick 4 day trip. Main goal is to put my friends on fish since last year was a total bust on the Gunflint Trail. So far I have picked up this information:
- Walleye: troll/jig the following islands - west on fourtown, on the lower part of boot, and the northeast on Fairy.

Where are the panfish and smallmouth though? Since my goal is to just put my friends on fish, just to keep their interest up, am I targeting the wrong area??? Sounds like you can catch fish here but there isn't a whole lot of consistent action. Would love to get on a good smallmouth/panfish bite to keep interests up while pulling in a few walleye for dinner.

Our outfitters also recommended Ella Hall Lake for top notch fishing (bass/pike). But I don't feel like we would be getting the true BWCA experience taking one portage and basecamping at a dead end lake. Plus there are no walleyes and I'm worried about campsites (size & availability).

Feel free to send me an email if you have helpful info!

For waldos, head to Gun, take the NW campsite close to Gull. Fish the Gun narrows and Gull for good action.

I would skip Boot. Did good on Fairy. The two campsites on Fairy are both excellent. Gun is good as well.

Get a very early start, this is a busy EP. We are usually on the water by 0600.

Or you can go straight to Moosecamp and base camp.

You can email me for specifics on this area.

I should add that I posted about this route a few months ago to get an idea of our travel time. We only have 3-4 hours to travel so Fairy looks like the farthest we can get. Camping on Moosecamp is out of the question. Daytrips to Gun/Gull are good ideas.

Are there rapids between Fourtown and Horse? You could pick up some smallies there if there is.

JD

Around the back side(north) of site 1095 on Boot there is a steep rock shelf that inclines into the water. Try fishing there out as far as you could cast from shore. I got the tip from a woman on the portage into Boot...we camped there and I had good luck there. Good action for panfish and eyes and my biggest ever from shore! Using just a leech on a slip bobber. Didn't fish anywhere else on Boot but I think that spot is a good one.

My son's and l were on Fairy lake June 20 to 25 and we caught a few panfish around the NE campsite. Excellent campsite. If you fish along the West end of fairy you most likely will hookup with some walleye. Fishing was ok could have been better. Have a good time. Great area.

old_salt: "For waldos, head to Gun, take the NW campsite close to Gull. Fish the Gun narrows and Gull for good action."

Just got back from my trip yesterday. I did pretty much exactly this and got several walleye on the west shore of the narrows. Pretty small but we found them in about 10 to 12 feet of water. Just drifted slowly with a leech on a jighead. Maybe the bigger ones were deeper but this was the first time in 4 days we were catching good numbers so we kept a couple bigger ones to eat. Plus if you cast to shore there was some good smallie action.

Glad you had a good trip and some good action.