Hi--putting the finishing touches on a route before permit day. We are doing a 6-7 day trip, moving most days, but want to do a layover for an extra night at a lake to spend a day fishing/relaxing before we take off again.

We can land on Ensign, Thomas, Fraser or Ima lakes early/mid afternoon for our layover day. last week of May/First week of June.

Haven't been in that area yet--so my question is--which of those lakes would give us the best opportunity at finding a campsite? Just one canoe with me and my son. Thoughts?

I've been through there including during early June. You should be able to find a campsite just fine on Fraser or Thomas. I'd be fairly confident about Ima too. Ensign...you should be fine to find something but that would be the lake I'd feel the least confident about finding a site. That's my observation anyway.

Hope you have a great trip with your son!

Ensign is an easy entry with tow to Splash so is busy and in my opinion over camped. Fraser/Thomas also offer better day trip options.

One other question-- what about Knife Lake? We could do a layover there. Would entail a bit more paddling on our way out, but doable.

Thomas and Fraser always seem to have sites open. Ensign...yikes! Ima I don't have experience with but have heard of difficulties at certain times.

wxce1260: "One other question-- what about Knife Lake? We could do a layover there. Would entail a bit more paddling on our way out, but doable. "

I agree 6-7 days allows plenty of time to go to Knife on day one and take a day and then go straight to Kek or scenic route to Eddy and still leaves a layover day or 2. If you have a layover day in hand when you get to Thomas it there, great fishing and all smaller protected lakes after Fraser

*after Thomas as long as you are not paddling Snowbank or Moose

PaddleBoi: "*after Thomas as long as you are not paddling Snowbank or Moose"

I hear you. We ware going to enter Snowbank-- will need to paddle to Disappointment. Not sure where we will exit yet.

The north campsite on Jordan, along the route between Ima and Ensign, is also great.

Ima has some beautiful campsites. I've taken groups back there several times over the years and have always loved it there. Side note, I liked this lake enough to name our cat Ima!

Fishing there was great too. Have been into lakers, walleyes, and bass there. Plenty of cool structure areas to fish.

Have a great trip!

Snowbank has a reputation for high winds that can ruin entire trips. Common advice is to be on the water as early in the day as possible so you can make that big crossing before the winds pick up. Heading straight to Disappointment is a good idea as it's a much larger crossing to head towards Boot. Ima can be the same way if the wind is coming from the wrong direction. A couple years back I spent 3 days in late May staring at whitecaps from a site on the east end of Ima. If we had just stayed on the north or west end we could have at least been fishing from a canoe for those 3 days instead of bushwhacking it to Hatchet to catch dinner. Don't miss Cattyman Falls! This is a beautiful, remote area and I hope you enjoy your trip!