Hello all, we are about a month and a half from our 1st trip to the falls chain for the 4 of us. We are pumped.

I appreciate the warnings about the dangers of the falls chain. We are experienced BW campers (over 45 combined trips) and we have read MANY warnings about the portages both put ins and take outs. I have read many posts here...we know to be VERY CAREFUL! Could we still get wet, sure, but we will do our best to hug the shoreline and pay close attention to water flow-age...and of course wear our PFD.

Anyway, I am just wondering about a couple updated things, since most posts I have found are much older, like 2013 or b4.

1) Once we make Kawnipi, which campsites should we head to? I have heard most of the nice ones r in McKenzie Bay.

2) I have heard that Kawa Bay area (while good for fishing) is not very attractive due to the burn...is this still the case or has it come back pretty well? I think the burn was years ago. Are there any viable campsites or were they all hammered pretty bad?

3) Most of the fishing reports are about the 2 north bays. Are any of the southern bays/fingers worth our time?

4) With 4 experienced men in decent shape, how long are we looking at to get to the wet/sydney lake area from the Rangers station and then the next day from wet/sydney lake area to McKenzie Bay area?

thanks so much everyone, we are excited to branch out from the BW and have a Q experience.

-thanks

Its been 3 or 4 years since I have been to Kawa bay, and you are right, that area was burned. I wouldn't say it's unattractive, though. Just different. The best campsite on Kawa bay is on the easternmost island. The one on the mainlaind near the Wawiag river is a great site as well, but the island is the winner.

The fishing in the Wawiag river is outstanding all the way up to the portage (probably beyond it as well, we just didn't fish that stretch). If you are turned off by the burn, I would suggest a campsite in or near Mckenzie bay, and a day trip into Kawa. It's big lake and you can't go wrong for fishing, though.

My son and I will be up in around those parts while you are there.
We are coming in from the north through McKenzie lake. We will be heading back on June 15 from Kawinipi to make it to pickerel. Hope you are safe. If you see a dark blue Souris River Quetico Canoe, a smaller white dog, and a little boy up front and a Sasquatch in the rear, come say Hi. Maybe even sit a spell.

I don't know much about the campsites, it is my first time to this area, so I can't help you there.

Good luck,
Moosehopper

quote Moosehopper: "My son and I will be up in around those parts while you are there.
We are coming in from the north through McKenzie lake. We will be heading back on June 15 from Kawinipi to make it to pickerel. Hope you are safe. If you see a dark blue Souris River Quetico Canoe, a smaller white dog, and a little boy up front and a Sasquatch in the rear, come say Hi. Maybe even sit a spell.
I don't know much about the campsites, it is my first time to this area, so I can't help you there.
Good luck,
Moosehopper"

Very Cool Moosehopper! I will look for you. We will have two old aluminum canoes, 1 will have a BWCA.com sticker on it and there are just the 4 of us in the group. June 15th we will also be heading back but SOUTH through the falls chain again. We havnt decided which tent we will have with us so that is no help.

I have not been there before either so I am no help...i started this post to accumulate as much knowledge as I can about that area. If we do meet, it would be fun to chat a little and share fishing knowledge of the area. Between the 6 of us we should be able to find something in that area. ;)

Good luck and be safe!

I think everyone heads to McKenzie bay becuase there are good camps there. The fishing is great as well any point or narrows was a hit for walleyes--so I think most people just don't leave the are due to good fishing near camp.

For your other question the fishing was great all the way through Kawnippi I didn't fish Kawa but I can't imagine it not being good there either. We were there in August and the fishing was really good though the narrows near the last falls form the falls chain when it got deep enough to troll. Any strucutre anywhere in the lake produced.

T

Thank you Marshall Prime,

We will hopefully see you out there. I'm sure my son will be eager to talk to you after spending a lot of time with his dad and dog. He likes to socialize with folks. We are heading in from Pickerel (Baptism Creek) June 5 so we are planning on being on Mckenzie, and Fergunson 7-11 and then on to Kawnipi during the 12th-15th or so. We just need to get back to Pickerel on the 18th. I hope you have a safe trip and have fun.

Moosehopper

There are a few really nice camp sites along the Falls Chain, the one at Bald Rock Falls comes to mind with its path right to the falls. I think too many of us push through the chain heading to Kawnipi.
I spent some time on McVicar bay in 2014 and did not see any good campsites. There was one very little used site on an island that had some nice potential, but the northern bays offer some fantastic camp options. Old growth pine, great views, fishing everywhere. Most of the burn area is the southeast and once past Kawa bay it is pretty nice. There is good regrowth and it's a good place to watch for Moose.

I can't help much since I'll just be taking my first trip to the Falls Chain this canoeing season (my first September trip - it's pretty important to my wife that her first BWCA/Quetico trip is light on the bugs!). However, I was up in Kawnipi this past June (June 14-20 2014). We came up through Agnes and spent a few nights in and around McKenzie Bay. The area was pretty stunning. It was some of my favorite northwoods terrain I've seen in my five trips up there. Beautiful old growth pines, lots of islands, long sight lines down the bays and main lake in the area, and even enough elevation to up the scenic draw of the area. We did well fishing in and around McKenzie Bay. We found a few really good fishing hotspots, so we unfortunately didn't explore the area as much as I'd have liked. We did spend a few hours in McVicar Bay, and the fishing and scenery didn't compare to McKenzie Bay - not even close. So I would say that if you plan to make it as far north as McVicar, dig in for another 10-15 minutes to get to McKenzie Bay. And post a trip report so I can make sure my wife's first trip is top-notch!

Last year with a group, I was traveling to Kenny from Mack and we decided to throw out some lures. The three people in our canoe caught a triple - walleye, smallmouth, and pike, all simultaneously. We definitely had our hands full. Kawnipi is brimming with fish, just go near a shore, throw out your line, and something will bite it.

You may be deep into your planning, but Kawa Bay is a smart choice! Here is a photo from massacre island on the east end of Kawa Bay. It is a 5 star camp site. Lots of hammock trees and great for a layover. And the fishing was pretty good! Go out at dusk and enjoy fun with "top water" smallies off the shore. Seriously, worth the paddle and effort to go to this campsite!! Lots of eagles were in the area as well.

...I forgot to mention, the falls are doable with common sense. Here is another photo of Kawa Bay. Have an amazing paddle!

You will love this trip. We went last year. You needn't be afraid of the falls as long as you are cautious. Troll throughout your paddle on Kawnipi. We did really well trolling. Also, if you can, head to the island campsite on McEwen, with the sandy beach. There's something really nice about that lake, and my son and I both caught lake trout jigging off the bottom 50 yds from that campsite. Well worth that Bitc% of a portage.

Thanks so much for all the support and ideas. We are super excited. Next week at this time we should be setting up camp on Sydney/Wet lake and getting the poles put together for jigging for walleyes or plastic worms on for bass...cant wait.

We will be day tripping to Kawa Bay and are looking forward to it.

Its getting close, this is when it get VERY EXCITING.

I will give a report when we return.

thanks

Looking forward to your report as my daughter and I are heading up that way on 6/22! Safe travels, MP!

Janice at Cache Bay ranger station will also give you the full briefing on handling the falls chain. She has her own mini-printed out map with portages labeled and some excellent advice. They are getting some rain up there so water levels will be up a bit but nothing like last year. Enjoy and be safe!

So we just returned from Kawnipi and it was beautiful up there and we had a GREAT trip. The weather was perfect, a couple days of normal wind but we were able to still do most normal things. A couple days were perfect with very little breeze. The Pike were hitting anything you threw, no massive ones, largest for group was 32 and mine was 30. I had 20 min where i landed a 27,28 and the 30 back in a small bay. One guy had a MASSIVE one on, perhaps around 40 but came off at the boat and I had a huge one that just kept diving but never came up then went on surge and cut my line, was it 28 or 38...we will never know. The walleyes were everywhere, never got into a certain area where we hit 15 or 20 but just keep working the shore or trolling and you would get one about every 20 min or so. Nothing huge, largest were 24 and 26 1/2. Mine was 21. Did catch MANY of the rare BLUE walleye...a first for me. I will post a pic below. Bass were the only disappointmet for us, they were pretty good size when we got them, quite a few 17-19 inchers, a couple 20's. They just were not all over like we expected. They were best in the channel into Kawnipi rather than anywhere else and we tried McKenzie bay, Kawa bay (bad wind this day) and McVicar Bay. I was the only one to get the Grand Slam as I got the 1st fish of the trip which was a lake trout as we trolled through Cache bay. It was the 1st fish and only lake trout.
We stayed on McKenzie bay at one of the 5 star sites, ours was the main land on east side of entrance, just south east of the 5 star site on the island which was also awesome. The two sites on Kawa were both quite nice as we inspected them both, one for a shore lunch and the other just because we were curious. We also stopped for a shore lunch at one of the last campsites in McVicar and it was terrible, destroyed by wind and we could tell noone had stayed there in years. We also stayed at Bald Rock Falls right by the falls which was nice and another day right before entering wet lake, also not a great site that needs some love but could be quite nice. Noone has stayed here in quite some time either.

Lots of eagles on McKenzie and all over Kawnipi. No moose or bears or wolves, a couple beavers and not as many loons and before but they were around.

Also, there were LOTS of warning about the falls and portages around the falls which I appreciated. We were careful and always used the farther portages and had NO PROBLEMS, not even any close calls with the falls. They were not scary or were we ever concerned. Now if we had pushed it and tried to get to the shorter portage spots then we would have been nervous. We had NO PROBLEMS. We followed Janice's directions and no problems. As for the portages, they were on the difficult side. Bald Rock Falls and Kennebas falls were SUPER easy. The others mostly had quite tricky footing and we had a lot of wet, slippery rocks. Koko Falls and Kennebas falls portages were quite tough and being back to back took a lot of energy. All were quite doable however and no problems.

Overall we had a super trip and would like to go back ASAP but it will probably be a couple years.

Great write-up and pics, thanks MarshallPrime. I'm heading up to Kawnipi in THREE DAYS so I appreciate the info!

Appreciate the information, and am glad you enjoyed your trip! My daughter and I are heading up that way on 6/22.

Glad to hear you had a good trip! Thanks for the report and the pics.

Unshavenman, it was nice crossing paths with you at the falls! Hope your trip was enjoyable. Really loved the falls area, and next year we hope to spend some more time there.

Heading into the falls area on Saganagons this Sunday. The weather looks great for us. We always have great fishing on that lake and I have my fingers crossed that the blueberries are ripening. Anxious for my annual rebirth. Ahhhhhhhhhhh.

Terry

Frenchy19, it was a pleasure crossing paths with you as well. What a beautiful time to be on the falls chain. I thought about you as we just made the 4 star island site on Saganagons before the portage. We got the CCS tarp up about 10 seconds before it started to pour on us!

quote unshavenman: "Frenchy19, it was a pleasure crossing paths with you as well. What a beautiful time to be on the falls chain. I thought about you as we just made the 4 star island site on Saganagons before the portage. We got the CCS tarp up about 10 seconds before it started to pour on us!"

That day was a looong one for us; about 9 hours on the water and a roughly 20 mile round trip. Allie got fried that day; she would not heed my request to put her wide brimmed hat on. She will not make that mistake again!