I'm considering Beaverhouse to Quetico Lake as a trip for June 2016. Our primary goal is fishing. We will drive from Detroit, MI area to Atikokan and base camp on one of the lakes. We are experienced, single portagers, but we hope to have a couple of newbies, too.

Your thoughts on this trip? Lakes to visit? Is the fishing really good? Spots? Thanks.

I doubt if you'll get spots. It's an easy trip. Cirrus is a Waldo factory. Both Quetico and Cirrus are excellent laker lakes. If you don't have electronics, plan to do some trolling. Good luck!

Jean Lake is always good for a Grand Slam in fishing.

Beaverhouse and Quetico are both excellent lakes. All have Grand Slam possibilities.

Some other comments:

1) BH and Quetico lakes are large water. Multi-mile open water is not uncommon. Be prepared to deal with big waves even in small wind. It is totally manageable, but you may lose a day or two of fishing to wind. Might select camp sites with protection from West & North winds.

2) Portage from BH to Q is a couple hundred yards - no problem.

3) Q has many camp sites. Some have bluff views, some are sand beaches, etc. Go to a camp web site and do your homework.

4) Quetico Park is all artificial bait and barbless hooks.

5) Get your park permit before you paddle on BH - saves lots of time. Can get at Atikokan or outfitters in the area.

Old Hoosier

Hoosier. When have you run into delays with permits being issued at Beaverhouse Ranger Station if you're going into Quetico Lake? Just wondering if they have been slow for you, or if you are coming from the east?

We always cross at Fort Frances. From my house, we have found it is 4.5 hours to Beaverhouse Landing. It is 5.5 hrs to run to park headquarters in Atikokan and double back.

Depending on where you are coming from, if you are going up THAT MORNING and you are going into Quetico Lake, get permit at Beaverhouse.

If you are going to enter Cirrus through the pylons, then run to Atikokan and double back as there is no need to cross that big open water and double back just to get the permit.

I came through Atikokan so picked up permit there but it seems the paddle to ranger station isn't 15 minutes from the the landing to Q Lake portage. Now, if you could go up the fire tower behind the ranger, It would be worth the trip.

It would be nice if there was a convenient - not far off the route - place to pick up permits between Ft Frances and the BH landing.

The BH ranger station can be "OK" or it can be a serious delay.

I live in Tennessee, and fly to Minneapolis.

I also always enter BH and go through Quetico - not Cirrus.

Several factors on the BH ranger station:

1) The paddle time itself from BH put-in to ranger station is an extra 30-45 minutes compared to direct to the falls portage into Quetico.

2) If the ranger station is busy, I have encountered and extra hour delay due to usually one ranger writing permits and sometimes fishing licenses.

3) A couple of times, the parties ahead of me wanted to get all the details on specific lakes, bear reports, and chit chat - so the ranger enjoys the company (no hurry.) I want to get to camp!

4) Finally- about once every 7 or 8 yrs the wind gets tough and delays at the station can wind you in as the mid-morning winds pick up.

5) If I recall, they do not open until 8 AM. As an early bird, I like to have lots of miles covered by this time.

While usually not a serious delay - maybe an hour total - it is simpler to get the permit (and fishing license) ahead of the launch on BH. Worst case can be 2 hrs plus.

Yes - I come from the west thru Intl Falls, but usually stay at Indiaonta Lodge the night before. They have the permits, cabins, early breakfast offering and away we go!

Old Hoosier

OH - how many years since you stopped at BH ranger station for a permit? I though they all opened at 7:30, stopped or at least strongly encouraged getting fishing licencees on line in advance, and with so many people getting permits ahead and generally fewer people I suspect the ranger is lonely.

I don't think Indiaonta will issue a permit unless you are staying with them - which is very fair - so if option for a self outfitter is going to Atikokan and back just for permit, it may not make sense. For the OP BillK - coming through Atikokan - stop and get permit - lots of choices. For Finnlander, coming from twin cities (?), I'd rather just head in rather than drive to and from Atikokan - 2 1/2 hour plus getting permit. Your routine OH makes sense for your travels. Next time I go I'll probably overnight in IF or FF and want to head directly to BH parking lot.

On BH, It is the difference of 3 miles to Q portage or 4.5 miles with a stop at the ranger plus getting permit. 1/2 hour more paddling versus another 2 1/2 in a car after 12-13 hours of driving? Lost of views and different approaches.

Second on staying at Indiaonta. Very nice, very convenient and no stopping at the ranger station. Park the truck, portage to BH lake and paddle to the next portage. Boom! Doesn't get more straight forward than that.

Thanks for your opinions OH and Bill. I live in Bemidji. Have only used the Beaverhouse Ranger Station once, and this was on an August trip with our kids. There was no line in front of us, and we had a later start.

I think we were at the station at 10:30am. Our permit issuing took an hour, (15 minutes waiting for the attendant to "wake up" and get dressed as he said he got "the flu"). Then he wasn't the best at the rudimentary math involved, so we nearly had to help him with the equations. That took the next 45 minutes.........arghhhhhhhhh!!!

That was a bit disappointing as I was expecting a 10 minute in and out of there like at the headquarters in Atikokan.

I have been fortunate so far to paddle across Beaverhouse in zero to very light winds. But I can imagine how rough she gets then the wind dials in from the west.

I agree that it does make sense to grab the permit the night before and lodge up somewhere so you can get on the water early and get rolling before the wind comes up. That's just not in the budget quite yet. :)

I think Bill is right, though about the fishing licenses. I don't think ranger stations issue them anymore, and they haven't for a few years now? I am issuing at Beaverhouse again this year. Hopefully things will be a bit more efficient for us than the last time!

Billconner

Yup - you are right. Been a few years since I have stopped in at the BH ranger station. Last time was 2013 when I took my 16 yr old granddaughter.

And you are correct about Indiaonta not offering the permits, etc unless you stay with them. But they do a really good job, and the logistics for us is perfect to make a long trip and stay overnight going in as well as out.

I travel a bit on business, so use "points" to fly from Tennessee to Minneapolis where I get canoes, then drive to Flanders - all in one day. A comfy sleep over at Indiaonta and I'm ready to paddle at "O dark thirty"!

The on-line fishing licenses have really helped, as well as Ontario Outdoor Card being on-line.

Just for general info - I have also had several cases where the BH ranger station cold not transact a credit card. They had to radio all the data to LLC station, who transacted the data and radioed the acceptance number back to BH station. This was a bit frustrating as the time took almost 40 minutes, let alone the personal data being broadcast to all the local radio owners. It all ended well, but just another motivation to avoid the station unless no other alternative.

Old Hoosier

Ran into the First Nation ranger and a couple of friends at the BH parking lot last June. Think they had been drinking. Glad to hear about all I've missed by never using the Ranger Station. Love working with the folks on Atikokan, both the Park office and Canoe Canada. Cheers.
--Goose

We've entered at BH many, many times. We travel from Wisconsin so we enter Canada at International Falls / Fort Frances. Once across the border, we drive straight to Atikokan where we visit the park headquarters for our camping permit, then check into the motel, usually the White Otter Inn but there are others equally acceptable.

It's 25 minutes from Atikokan to the Flanders turnoff to the Beaverhouse landing and another 35-40 minutes to the BH parking lot. We're on the road a little after 5:00am and are paddling by 6:30-6:45am.

Like Old Hoosier, we head straight to the portage into Quetico Lake instead of the ranger station because we already have our permit.

Our fishing licenses and Outdoors Cards are purchased online well in advance of our trip because they're not sold at the ranger stations anymore.

I've been to this part of Quetico a few times. Haven't done very well fishing on Beaverhouse, maybe cuz the water is clearest of all the lakes in this area. I like Quetico for fishing because of the large number of points and islands to fish around. I like Jean Lake a lot. Just the right size lake to fish, all 4 species, enough structure close to campsites, and a little more tannic stain in the water.

As far as spots: just target points, mid-lake reefs, islands with small rocks in the water, and weed edges. Use a depth finder to eliminate unproductive areas. There is a fair amount of deep water greater than 100 feet deep on all these lakes, so it's better to be selective when fishing over the deep water, for example, when targeting lake trout in mid/late summer. I've done pretty well anchoring and jigging and casting. Also slow trolling is very effective.

Good Luck and safe tripping!

Bill,

Hope all is well with you. Shot you an email.

PK