This is very far off but I like to spend my winters planning. Planning my trip for early fall of 2025. Can travel 10-15 miles a day but after two fast paced trips I'm ready to just enjoy my time relaxing and fishing. Looking for good Basecamp recommendations with the following criteria:

1) good walleye and bass fishing
2) within a hour of ely
3) can reach in 1- 1.5 days
4) not on a major route. I understand we will never find perfect seclusion not traveling super deep in, but would like a lesser traveled lake that we can be a little obnoxious without ruining anyone else's experience.

I've done two 50+ mile trips through EP 14 but we would like to find a new area to explore.

Any suggestions are appreciated!

If I was looking for a base camp for primarily fishing and only gave myself one day to get there I’d probably go in EP 16 and head to Lac La Croix. Plenty of good fishing and good campsites from Boulder Bay/Tiger Bay up to Fish Stake Narrows. Day tripping to Lady Boot Bay (and to its north) or Iron Lake would likely reward the fisherman. Maybe this is an area you’ve been, but if not…

plander: "If I was looking for a base camp for primarily fishing and only gave myself one day to get there I’d probably go in EP 16 and head to Lac La Croix. Plenty of good fishing and good campsites from Boulder Bay/Tiger Bay up to Fish Stake Narrows. Day tripping to Lady Boot Bay (and to its north) or Iron Lake would likely reward the fisherman. Maybe this is an area you’ve been, but if not…"

We've explored LLC a little on the western side, definitely in the running! We had a day going between gebe and takucmich that we spent fishing, was the best fishing we had all trip. Always been interested in lady boot bay but heard bears were problematic in that area

Bears haven't been a problem in Lady Boot bay. Agnes lake to the southeast has had somewhat consistent bear visits over the past couple of summers.

This is going to sound strange because this is on a heavily traveled route which suggests that no seclusion can be found.

Entry point 30, Lake One. Travel through the number lakes, through Hudson, and into Insula. Half way up Insula there is an arm to the northwest. We call it "Fools Bay" because it fools people into thinking that this is the route to Thomas or Fishdance (alternatively, only fools would paddle up this dead end bay) and it gets little traffic.

The campsite I like is 1339, situated on a point and quite flat with no big hills to climb. There are a few reefs that hold fish in mid to late summer, deep water nearby if you like to jig or lots of places along the shorline that trolling will produce fish. I had camped there many years, often seeing only a few canoes crossing the other end of the bay to cross the "Moose Portage". Sometimes another small party would come up exploring, occasionally someone would come to fish but some years we would go an entire week without seeing another canoe.

I'd like to go again as I really like this campsite but my wife says that she will no longer take the portage from Hudson to Insula as she feels it too dangerous for us as we have crossed over into our 70's so I will relinquish this special spot to one of you.

This is an area of small fish. I have never caught a walleye over 8 pounds nor an northern pike over 20 pounds but the fishing for eating is very good and we have grown to expect to have walleye for 2 meals a day if we choose.

Check out my trip report posted in August.

Depending on how many campers you have there is a great little site between Wednesday and Thursday Bay. Easy enough to get to with plenty of route options.
The fishing is fantastic. The campsite is perfect for two people and maybe 4.

An easy paddle up to little and big current and even over to Sat/Sun bay if ya want.

One of my favorite areas in all of the BWCA.

May be a stretch for 1-1.5 days, though Cherry Lake comes to mind. Gorgeous route & lake with great walleye fishing. Site further east is the bee’s knees & I was catching nice eyes from camp.

Poohbah in Quetico

If you can get the 1 site on Carp with a Canadian fishing license and RABC it could be a pretty good base camp. I like the Quetico Carp entry for camping in Quetico but it can be pretty pricey, especially for several people. There may be a fair amount of traffic going by during the day, but would be pretty quiet in the evening due to it being the only site on that side of the border. The campsite is not great though.

Splash lake has only one campsite and has good ratings if it is available. You'd probably hear boats there though. Alworth off of Ima has 2 sites and not a lot of traffic. You can fish there or Ima. Alworth has walleye, pike and whatever a Rock bass is. I really liked the site on the portage to Alworth although there is no guarantee of privacy since it is close to the portage.

If you haven’t already, look at Thunder or Moosecamp lakes via Mudro. Excellent fishing and Thunder is out of the normal loop area. Fairly easy to get to outside of the Fourtown portages.

walllee: "Poohbah in Quetico "

Lee, I think you missed the “Within an hour of Ely” prerequisite. Lol

Jackfish: "

walllee: "Poohbah in Quetico "

Lee, I think you missed the “Within an hour of Ely” prerequisite. Lol "

I sure did Pete! I sure did.