Having a blast with my maps and planning my 2017 trip. This will be my second trip - the first being 2 years ago. I don't have much experience with canoes. My normal way of fishing is off a sit on top kayak in all types of water (offshore, inshore, lakes and rivers of all sizes . .except no whitewater).

On a kayak I feel like I pretty much know what I'm doing. I know how to use the strengths of the boat to my advantage and work-around the weaknesses. I'm kinda lost in a canoe.

On my last trip, I felt frustrated by 2 things . .1. I felt like I was passing a million great looking fishing spots just to get to my supposed "good spot". 2. The canoe was really susceptible to the wind and I could really only travel, let alone fish out of it, in the am to early afternoon.

So, if you're goal is a fishing trip, do you plan out where you want to fish and then travel expeditiously to that spot . .or do you sort of "fish your way" around? I really want to fish my way around . .I feel like if I follow the fishing instead of trying to get to some spot on a map, I will catch more and bigger fish . . but, if I spend all the calm hours fishing, I'm not going to be able to get anywhere when the wind kicks up.

Also - on a kayak, I tend to troll a lot. When I cast, I'll usually set up a drift . .ie . .drift along shoreline and cast at it. I never anchor. In a canoe, though, had a pretty hard time setting up a drift. This year I'm going to bring a drift anchor so that will probably help. When I tried anchoring the canoe, I felt like it was really frustrating . .for one, I'm not practiced at anchoring so I was rarely more than close to where I actually wanted to be and 2 I felt like it was a pain to anchor and re-anchor.

So how do you guys fish out of a canoe? Trolling? Casting? Drifting? Anchoring? Of course the conditions will ultimately dictate . .but if you had your druthers.

Thanks for any ideas . .hoping to sort of complete my mental fishing plan/strategy . . . .as well as just spend some time thinking about fishing in January . .when I could actually go fishing (TX) but nothing much will bite.

I am not even close to as experienced as most of the members here but over the 20 years or so fishing in the BWCA we learned a few things. We began to troll Rapala minnows (mostly the #11 in floater in silver) anytime we were moving from one fishing area to another. We would add split shot to vary the depth they were running and we were able to catch a lot of Smallies, Pike , and Walleyes doing this. If we were targeting Lakers we would troll Rapala Taildancers ( large, deep diving purple) and had a lot of success. We never had much luck anchoring so we would have one man control the canoe while the other fished and try to use the wind to push us down a likely shoreline. We made all of our trips in the first two weeks of June. I hope this helps.

Yeah - that makes sense to have 1 guy control the canoe. On my trip 2 years ago I had another guy with me . .neither of us could really control the canoe, though, lol. We did ok while travelling - but we were not terribly good at staying on a spot or keeping oriented the right way, etc.

This time I'll be solo. I will have a kayak paddle with me so, if I get caught in the wind, at least I can get the thing to shore. I almost blew away forever down the lake when a 15knot wind picked up suddenly on Crooked. .but that's another story, lol.

Thanks!

I feel your pain, my first trip was solo, and windy. Not the usual afternoon wind, the all day 15 mph with gusts higher. The only thing that saved me was I was too tired to fish most of the time anyway!

My last trip was in a tandem. I didn't fish as much as I could have, as I was positioning the canoe for my son most of the time. I still caught my share, and really enjoyed watching him fish.

We would troll anytime the canoes were moving, and caught at least half of our fish that way. When we were just out fishing, we would use the wind to push us along the shore or weed edge, and cast.

I have used my solo for fishing in the local rivers more than flatwater, and I carry a basketball net and about 50 ft of line to use as an anchor. Once on the water, find a rock, or a few, to put in the net to use as an anchor. I tie it off to the seat, so it is centered on the boat, and let wind or current push me sideways. A warning though, too much wind or current, and this is not a real good idea.

I did my first solo last year, fishing was the only priority. Glad I picked a route with small water and rivers because the wind made fishing from a yak impossible most of the time even on these small water bodies. Resorted to shore fishing on points and around rapids. Trolling, even anchoring in the wind was almost impossible. A drift sock wouldn't have helped. My next solo will also be centered smaller lakes that have moving water.

Interesting points which kind of confirm what I'm currently leaning towards . .which is to spend a lot of time trolling. It solves a lot of problems . .canoe control, need to make miles, covering lots of water, etc. Of course when I pass those tempting spots I'll stop and cast or try to drift or whatever conditions will allow..but I'll keep moving and fishing vs trying to get to a spot and then fish.

I probably won't be able to stay on small water but if it's real windy I can bail out to smaller water or hunker down. I'm planning on doing a loop from Seagull through Ogish to SAK - then West on Knife to Neglige..back East on Kekekabic and back out via Ogish>>Seagull.

I'm totally focused on fishing and I can't help but feel like bigger water will give me the best chance at a really special fish. Of course I know that smaller lakes can and do give up trophies but I don't have that kind of intel...yet. I would love to catch and release 'mn master angler' size of each of the 5 species I'll be fishing for . .ha . .who wouldn't, right? But I think my route gives me a shot.

http://www.fishinghalloffamemn.com/master-anglers/master-angler-qualifying-fish/

IMHO much depends on the time of year you are going. I solo almost all the time and spring and early summer you may very well do better casting instead of trolling. But as fish go deeper later in the summer trolling is the name of the game for me and I do it with precision.

A few more thoughts.........if traveling a nice fat topwater like a whopper plopper fished way back with your rod high in the air to keep the line out of the water and some braid will put a variety of fish in the boat with minimal hassle. No worrying about what a diving lure is doing and no stopping and going back to retrieve a snagged lure which burns valuable time.

You can't fish it all and all of it looks good..........that is until you run with your depth finder on wether fishing or not. That way you can nail down places that really are good and focus on them later. You do have a depth finder don't you?

Do what you want is the best advice. You will learn your own "style" and adjust accordingly. BTW.......dont let the thought of the wind bump you off the bigger lakes especially later in the year. The smaller lakes are tough later in the summer but good fishing can be had on the larger bodies of water. Lots of different patterns happening on the bigger more diverse larger lakes.

The fish have solved your problem. Walleye and bass feed best from about four in the morning until seven and then again from seven in the evening through dark. That leaves plenty of low wind paddling time for travel and as you travel, troll for pike, which feed best from 11 in the morning through the afternoon.

I cast and paddle. When we're two to a canoe, we still cast and paddle, but most of the paddling happens from the stern, with the stern paddler providing plenty of power to creep the canoe along.

MT - I Should've mentioned - I'm planning on starting the trip on 5/16.

No - I don't bring a depth finder . .it would be awesome, though. I have nav charts on my gps that gives me depth information and I focus a lot on things I can see . . pinch points, streams flowing into the lake, rocks, islands, points, etc.

For my normal fishing I use a depth finder but it seems like too much to bring up to the BW...especially being spring...I'm not sure it puts enough more fish in the boat to justify . .not only the weight . .but the gear woes.

It depends on what I'm targeting. If hunting for walleyes I look at the map and take a depth finder. Paddle around until we find a nice break/hump and drop the anchor. Then either drop slip bobbers with leeches, fan cast with jigs tipped with a leech or a plastic. It usually doesn't take too many stops to get into them.

If looking for smallies then we drift and slowly paddle the shoreline casting to targets with either topwaters or wacky worms. Rapalas and jerkbaits can be effective in this scenario also.

I know people talk about catching fish while trolling but I don't have much success that way.

We do just about everything you could think of to catch fish. It is the main reason we go up. We base camp and fish hard every day. The weather conditions dictate how we fish. If it's calm we anchor and cast, or slip bobber. If it's windy we find a bay. We use two basketball net anchors with rocks so the canoe stays in the zone, not just pivot on the anchor rope. If it's not too windy the back person paddles close to shore with a big Rapala dragging behind and the front guy casts to shore or out and back to the canoe. We also paddle then drift over the water we want to fish. I used to struggle with fishing in out of a canoe. I'm very fortunate that the guys I go with have taught me many tricks over the years.

quote cgchase: "MT - I Should've mentioned - I'm planning on starting the trip on 5/16.


No - I don't bring a depth finder . .it would be awesome, though. I have nav charts on my gps that gives me depth information and I focus a lot on things I can see . . pinch points, streams flowing into the lake, rocks, islands, points, etc.


For my normal fishing I use a depth finder but it seems like too much to bring up to the BW...especially being spring...I'm not sure it puts enough more fish in the boat to justify . .not only the weight . .but the gear woes. "

OK.......no depth finder is not so bad in spring. You sound like you got it going on. Typically I will let the conditions dictate my approach. If I have a nice drift I will cast. If not I will troll. In May fish can be in some skinny water and I am never a fan of trolling over the top of them when they are shallow.........but who knows? Fish do what they want so go figure.

We troll for walleye, for the most part. Northerns are fun, too. I paddle, my bowman does not. We both fish. I use a rod holder or hold my rod with my knees. Paddling alone, I can maintain direction and speed, watching for landmarks, checking the fish finder and gps screen. Some humps and saddles demand that we anchor. Some perfect breezes demand that we drift. Some previous gps waypoint marks pay off. Sometimes, we add a few more. Sometimes, we just watch the eagles and listen to the loons. Some days, dinner. Every day, memories.

Besides all the good advice already mentioned I would add that we decide what area of the lake we want to concentrate our fishing efforts during our trip planning phase with lake maps depending on time of year and we try to camp as Close as Possible to our fishing area(s). We are fishing base campers and this is a big deal for us! This saves tons of time and paddling which results in more productive fishing.

We are HUGE fans of depth finders as they basically will eliminate 80-90% of the fishing area once we establish a pattern without throwing a cast and they keep us in the right depth range when trolling (Big Deal). I would put my depth finder right with my helinox chair as far a canoe trip importance to me. I'm not interested in going without. Lots of tips and tricks on this forum for light weight depth finder ideas. My setup is based on a combination of a few different setups and knowledge I've picked up on this forum.

We do use drift socks some if really windy (too windy to anchor) or catch the right wind and just cruise fish/troll a productive area without paddling.

One last but very important tip. Forget the tackle boxes full of lures. They just slow you down and are a PITA to portage over and over and over. I had to learn the hard way. Cut the learning curve and ditch the majority of the fishing tackle. You'll thank me later.

quote BnD: " Besides all the good advice already mentioned I would add that we decide what area of the lake we want to concentrate our fishing efforts during our trip planning phase with lake maps depending on time of year and we try to camp as Close as Possible to our fishing area(s). We are fishing base campers and this is a big deal for us! This saves tons of time and paddling which results in more productive fishing.


We are HUGE fans of depth finders as they basically will eliminate 80-90% of the fishing area once we establish a pattern without throwing a cast and they keep us in the right depth range when trolling (Big Deal). I would put my depth finder right with my helinox chair as far a canoe trip importance to me. I'm not interested in going without. Lots of tips and tricks on this forum for light weight depth finder ideas. My setup is based on a combination of a few different setups and knowledge I've picked up on this forum.


We do use drift socks some if really windy (too windy to anchor) or catch the right wind and just cruise fish/troll a productive area without paddling.


One last but very important tip. Forget the tackle boxes full of lures. They just slow you down and are a PITA to portage over and over and over. I had to learn the hard way. Cut the learning curve and ditch the majority of the fishing tackle. You'll thank me later."

Interesting you mention the Helinox Chair . .I'm not bringing my Helinox Chair, either, lol. I brought it last time and I enjoyed using it . .but I really want to be leaner this trip. I was ok, weight-wise but I had what I call "gear woes"...where I feel like I'm constantly dealing with gear - juggling, stowing, maintaining, sorting, etc.

Excellent point on the tackle limitation . .I think I did pretty well on that for my first trip. I limited myself to 1 medium size plano box for hardbaits, 1 small (~4x6) box for lead and terminal tackle, 4 slip bobbers, 1 quart-size ziplock full of plastics and a leech locker. That covered me pretty well for 8 days of fishing...the only thing I ran out of was plastic frogs . .the pike just tore them up.

Being earlier this year I probably will not bring leeches and probably bring frozen deadbait of some kind . .whatever's legal and available . .can't keep up w/you guys, lol . .I will check as trip gets closer.


BTW - side question and sorry for hijacking my own thread . . but if my goal is to catch a grandslam of MN Master Angler qualifying fish . . . can you think of a better route? I need a:

21" smallie
40" pike
34" laker
26" walleye

The lakes I'll be fishing:
Seagull
Alpine
Ogishkemuncie
Eddy
South Arm Knife
Gift
Knife
Kekekabic

I think they're all long shots, of course (it's not called the "MN Average Angler", lol) The walleye should be do-able. The bass . .you just never know . . the laker and pike will be tough . .but I feel like there's a shot for the Pike on Eddy or Gift and the laker on Knife, Kekeabic or Seagull.

Thoughts?

I'm with ya' on gear fatigue and agree 100%. We single portage (less is more),however, my chair and light weight depth finder are in period. That depth finder saves so much unproductive fishing time at a glance (lakes in the Q aren't contour mapped) its easily worth more than its weight in tackle, etc..... We trip to fish and catch fish.

As far as your route I can't tell ya' anything as I've never been to those lakes. We have tripped in the Q every year since 1995. Sorry. Good luck. Ask Plittle.

IMO, one place a canoe excels is medium size rivers like the upper St. Croix. You can get in close, and the tree lined river tends to cut down on the wind, although late in the afternoon it can blow hard, but its usually upstream, not from the side.
I don't bother to troll anymore, to do it effectively you have to go slow, and I'd rather just paddle to the next spot.

quote cgchase: "

BTW - side question and sorry for hijacking my own thread . . but if my goal is to catch a grandslam of MN Master Angler qualifying fish . . . can you think of a better route? I need a:


21" smallie
40" pike
34" laker
26" walleye


The lakes I'll be fishing:
Seagull
Alpine
Ogishkemuncie
Eddy
South Arm Knife
Gift
Knife
Kekekabic


I think they're all long shots, of course (it's not called the "MN Average Angler", lol) The walleye should be do-able. The bass . .you just never know . . the laker and pike will be tough . .but I feel like there's a shot for the Pike on Eddy or Gift and the laker on Knife, Kekeabic or Seagull.


Thoughts? "

IMO, you'd be better off just working Big Sag with a depth finder and as much info as you can get
you'll catch fish on that route, but like you say, it'll be a long shot to hit those goals, mostly because it is a well traveled loop, not as heavy as most loops near Ely, but still heavy enough to make those sizes few and far between
you'd have fun trying though

yes, Sag has even more fishermen, but it's a far bigger lake

21" smallie
40" pike
34" laker
26" walleye

The walleye would be pretty easy and the pike doable. I've never measured a laker, so I woudn't know if 34" is hard to achieve. The bass would be hard, even though I focus on bass.

quote missmolly: "21" smallie
40" pike
34" laker
26" walleye


The walleye would be pretty easy and the pike doable. I've never measured a laker, so I woudn't know if 34" is hard to achieve. The bass would be hard, even though I focus on bass. "

Being from TX, the only time I've ever fished for lakers, pike or walleye was my trip to the bw 2 years ago. I've fished for smallies before but only a handful of times.

Last time I managed:
28" walleye
22" laker
28" pike
20" smallie

But it was technically 2 trips as I had 2 permits . one for the east side and one for the west side.

The idea of just targeting Saganaga with a fish finder is an interesting one . .I could bring my kayak, too..which I'm much more comfortable on in rough conditions. Something to think about. . .

If you want to target one lake for all of those sizes, I would pick either Pickeral or Basswood. You won't see many folks on Pickeral. No motor traffic or portages if you enter at French.

Fishing out of a canoe is a skill that you will pick up over time. When I am targeting walleyes, I tend to have a few different tools in the arsenal.

Depending on the wind and direction it is coming from related to the structure I want to fish, I love using a drift sock! If the wind is right and you can move around the structure you will have some fantastic success in staying on the fish. However, it takes some time to get used to using a drift sock and have success with them.

I also often will use an "anchor bag" to stay put in one position, this technique is used a lot in the spring when walleyes tend to be easy targets around moving water. I have a couple of "anchor bags" that I picked up from Kondos Outdoors and have been in my fishing gear for the better part of two decades! I know many people also use a basketball net, tied on the bottom and filled with rocks, then tied on the top.

In certain wind conditions, there is no other way but to have one person position the canoe and the second person fish. An example of this a couple of summers ago, I needed to use the depth finder to keep the canoe in 9' of water.....if we got to 8' or 10' there were no walleyes, but at 9', my daughter was able to pull one after another into the boat.

Floating is another method that I have used to great success, especially with live bait. Hook up a minnow or crawler, and let the wind blow you over structure. I have caught some of my biggest fish with this method.

The last method that we use is to troll for fish. Most of the time, I use this method when I am looking for fish, exploring a new lake, or on my way from the portage to the campsite. I have often used a rapala suspending husky jerk. I like the suspending version because if you choose to stop and check out a location, look at the map, or just take a break, the lure will stay at the depth that it is being trolled at. I have had many strikes from fish after we have been sitting still for a few minutes.

I hope this helps.

Hmmm".........that's quite a few lakes. Be flexible and keep your expectations low. If your going to be doing lots of travelling that means lots of breaking and setting up camp as well.......time consuming. But that's OK".......I like travelling to!

But it may be that about the time you get a few hints and clues to flesh out more fully it might be time to get on the road again. I have experienced this many times. But I generally dislike going to the same places all the time even though I would probably catch more and bigger fish by returning and building on previous knowledge.

quote cgchase: "Having a blast with my maps and planning my 2017 trip. This will be my second trip - the first being 2 years ago. I don't have much experience with canoes. My normal way of fishing is off a sit on top kayak in all types of water (offshore, inshore, lakes and rivers of all sizes . .except no whitewater).

On a kayak I feel like I pretty much know what I'm doing. I know how to use the strengths of the boat to my advantage and work-around the weaknesses. I'm kinda lost in a canoe.

On my last trip, I felt frustrated by 2 things . .1. I felt like I was passing a million great looking fishing spots just to get to my supposed "good spot". 2. The canoe was really susceptible to the wind and I could really only travel, let alone fish out of it, in the am to early afternoon.

So, if you're goal is a fishing trip, do you plan out where you want to fish and then travel expeditiously to that spot . .or do you sort of "fish your way" around? I really want to fish my way around . .I feel like if I follow the fishing instead of trying to get to some spot on a map, I will catch more and bigger fish . . but, if I spend all the calm hours fishing, I'm not going to be able to get anywhere when the wind kicks up.

Also - on a kayak, I tend to troll a lot. When I cast, I'll usually set up a drift . .ie . .drift along shoreline and cast at it. I never anchor. In a canoe, though, had a pretty hard time setting up a drift. This year I'm going to bring a drift anchor so that will probably help. When I tried anchoring the canoe, I felt like it was really frustrating . .for one, I'm not practiced at anchoring so I was rarely more than close to where I actually wanted to be and 2 I felt like it was a pain to anchor and re-anchor.

So how do you guys fish out of a canoe? Trolling? Casting? Drifting? Anchoring? Of course the conditions will ultimately dictate . .but if you had your druthers.

Thanks for any ideas . .hoping to sort of complete my mental fishing plan/strategy . . . .as well as just spend some time thinking about fishing in January . .when I could actually go fishing (TX) but nothing much will bite. "

Definitely get a drift sock, and use that sock. Figure out the different places to hook the sock to change the angle of the drift. There are a lot of different ideas, here, and they all work. Figure out how to setup and drift the way you want to fish.

Man, I cannot wait till my Trips this year. Gonna be epic.

quote missmolly: "The fish have solved your problem. Walleye and bass feed best from about four in the morning until seven and then again from seven in the evening through dark. That leaves plenty of low wind paddling time for travel and as you travel, troll for pike, which feed best from 11 in the morning through the afternoon.


I cast and paddle. When we're two to a canoe, we still cast and paddle, but most of the paddling happens from the stern, with the stern paddler providing plenty of power to creep the canoe along. "

they slow down, but if the conditions are right, we THUMP them all day. But you're right, your times are pretty much spot on for what we consider prime time.

I will say though, we're generally in before dark most trips now. I just cannot robo fish like I used to.

quote old_salt: "If you want to target one lake for all of those sizes, I would pick either Pickeral or Basswood. You won't see many folks on Pickeral. No motor traffic or portages if you enter at French."

I thought pickerel would see a ton of traffic due to the easy entry from the north. I've always avoided that area due to my thoughts on traffic.

Tell me I'm crazy, because Pickerel looks GREAT.

Gotten a lo)t of good ideas on this thread. Pickerel sounds amazing - it's definitely on my radar for the future.

As far as expectations go . .I kind of expect to catch at least one of each species..I would be a little surprised if I didn't. As far as size goes, I just want to give myself the best chance with a single route.

Another contender might be on the West side - up into LLC and some of the lakes south..but my gut feeling is the Knife route is better. The bonus is they're all good . .whichever one I'm on is sure to feel like the right choice, lol.

I'm still torn between covering water vs fishing intently but still leaning towards covering water. I guess, in my experience, I catch the best fish when I'm at the right place at the right time (not to be confused with luck :) ) vs really figuring out a piece of water.

For those of you who scull while fishing do you prefer a beaver tail or otter tail paddle?

Usually fishing in a canoe is cast, paddle, paddle, cast, repeat. You just want to work the area where you think they are and cover some ground. Trolling is fine but without a depth finder it can suck if you do not know the area well. The benefit to being in a boat is that you can pick your location easier. Anchoring is better in some conditions, but letting yourself drift and trying different angles works too. Walleye like rock piles so working a spot like you would with bass is a perfectly legitimate tactic. Getting out and sitting on the rocks can work too. I had a spot where we did that and 2 of us caught 8 nice size walleyes in 2 days. That was just with fishing for only a couple hours each time.

Interesting about canoe or kayak trolling . . . I do it in a different way than I would in a motor boat w/electronics.

How I troll in a kayak (or canoe) is I paddle the shoreline at a certain distance out. In most lakes, for example, if I wanted to be trolling 10 feet deep, I'd be about 15-20 yards offshore with the lure running on the shore side of the boat...as far behind the boat as I can manage.

From there I would follow the contours of the shoreline . .if I'm hitting bottom, I'll move out a bit . .if I'm not and I'm getting no bites, I'll move closer.

I almost never just troll over the middle of the lake..especially not without electronics. I troll over the same water I would cast...especially when the wind is up. I can troll through water that would be too rough to stop and fish in.

quote AmarilloJim: "For those of you who scull while fishing do you prefer a beaver tail or otter tail paddle?"

I had a beavertail for years and it seemed to work very well for sculling...just came natural!

For the past several years I have been using an ottertail, and it did not come as natural or ever feel as "right" I am finding it to do just as good of a job, just took some getting used to.

I like to vertical jig blade baits off of points or around humps that I see on topo maps, satalite images or just find with sonar. I also pitch jigs where ever there is running water entering a lake. When I travel or am scouting a lake out, I will contour troll or open water troll at a desired depth. I like to change weights up or remove altogether so I rig a snapswivel as photoed.

I used to like base camping but now I like to move and find new fish. There are so many fish and great areas of structure up there that you will always catch plenty of fish.

quote CrookedPaddler1: "

quote AmarilloJim: "For those of you who scull while fishing do you prefer a beaver tail or otter tail paddle?"

I had a beavertail for years and it seemed to work very well for sculling...just came natural!


For the past several years I have been using an ottertail, and it did not come as natural or ever feel as "right" I am finding it to do just as good of a job, just took some getting used to."

Awesome thread!! Just curious what do you mean by sculling? And I assume Beavertail and ottertail are the shape of the paddle am I right ? Thanks

For me it is to keep the canoe motionless or with a slight movement in order to vertical jig. I find it much easier to move slightly into the wind backwards. I use my left arm to use a short paddle and my right for fishing. If it's too windy to comfortably use 1 hand I may use my kayak paddle. I only get 3 or 4 jigging movements in between paddles this way.

Ottertail and beavertail refer to the shape of the paddle blade. The ottertail is a long, narrow blade, while the beavertail is shorter fatter blade.

quote mnrackhunter: "

quote CrookedPaddler1: "

quote AmarilloJim: "For those of you who scull while fishing do you prefer a beaver tail or otter tail paddle?"

I had a beavertail for years and it seemed to work very well for sculling...just came natural!



For the past several years I have been using an ottertail, and it did not come as natural or ever feel as "right" I am finding it to do just as good of a job, just took some getting used to."

Awesome thread!! Just curious what do you mean by sculling? And I assume Beavertail and ottertail are the shape of the paddle am I right ? Thanks "