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airmorse
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Cedarboy: "My worst lake is Alpine just west off of Seagull. Been going there for 30years, horrible, very bad. For some reason I keep going back...weenk, weenk,knod, knod.... CB"
We nailed the walleye last year on Alpine.
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airmorse
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Or maybe we didn't.....
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PINETREE
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i AGREE Clearwater next to Gabro. A very pretty lake, nice campsites, very few people, but I have fished it twice and not even a strike. Minnesota DNR once put lake trout in there, but I do not think they took. I hear there is some big northern pike in there. Has anybody even caught a perch out of this lake ? This lake has my number, I can not figure it out fish wise. Much of east shore last year was purple from fireweed due to fire a few years ago.
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muskieman
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didnt catch anything or get a bite on boot lake when we paddled through it last year.
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emptynest56
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Green Lake a few portages north of Oyster Lake. Again, hammer handle snake northerns that hit every lure, every cast.
I actually caught a 2 lb walleye fishing near the westernmost campsite on Juno Lake. It was hard to find a suitable tree to hang the food pack. Lakes like this convinced me to get a food barrel.
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Arkansas Man
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MP you caught the only walleye in there! Did you eat that one, or turn it loose to never bite again!!!
Bruce
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ILikePike
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we actually did okay on alton. We had a good spot on the island on the east side 2/3 the way up. my dad caught a 17" sb on his first cast and caught nice smallies that night. only one little walleye in a week. nothing spectacular
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mipe4
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I agree with Clearwater. The only thing we caught there last year were a few bluegill.
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tworke
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the ones that are dried up! :)
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airmorse
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airmorse: "Others will say differently, but Boot lake (ep23) is devoid of all aquatic life in my opinion. I have fished that lake several times and come up empty every time."
After this year trip I will also add Gaskin to the list. No fish.
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Zwater
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Pinetree: "It was in the 70's Skull lake you could catch brookies up to 5 pounds before fishing pressure increased. It has had other fish problems for 30 years."
I wonder if fishing spots got out? Tell me your best hot spot? Haha. Thats how it works.
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Pinetree
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Zwater: "Pinetree: "It was in the 70's Skull lake you could catch brookies up to 5 pounds before fishing pressure increased. It has had other fish problems for 30 years."
I wonder if fishing spots got out? Tell me your best hot spot? Haha. Thats how it works." '
Actually before it got infested with other fish, Outdoor writer from Ely- Bob Cary who moved there not to much before than,wrote a article about the great brook trout fishing there, than it was a short time numerous people were fishing it.
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shock
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and across the street , found lake was also descent up to about the late 80's , held some large splake and rainbows at 1 time.
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airmorse
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airmorse: "Others will say differently, but Boot lake (ep23) is devoid of all aquatic life in my opinion. I have fished that lake several times and come up empty every time."
After this year trip I will also add Gaskin to the list. No fish.
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snakecharmer
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I think I might have caught the other walleye in Jordan lake:) Pretty lake...but the fishing...not so good!
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Savage Voyageur
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I second Alton for the worst lake. Last year i fished for 2 days and caught nothing. I did have a couple of bites, LOL
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kevheads
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Alton has been known for quality not quanity,the first time I fished Alton,I caught a 5lb. smallie the first night then the next morning we had a mayfly hatch that lasted the rest of the week and we never caught another fish on Alton. So we switched to Kelso and caught plenty of northerns but all were small. The following year the wife and I stayed on Alton and we caught dozens of walleyes every night back in the bay by the Kelso portage. Also seen a guy take a nice 8-9 lb walleye out of Alton.
I haven't had a bad lake inside the BW.But Bear Island lake south of Ely was the worst,one July.We ended up giving up on fishing and picked blueberries all week instead.
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arctic
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Many of the posts here are spot-on.
Pine Lake, at the east end of the BWCA, has been a poor fishery for many years. Once a good laker lake, the huge whitefish population there, as well as smallmouth bass and walleye introductions have virtually eliminated lake trout. In the 1970s and 80s it had a good walleye fishery--mostly at the west end. I don't hear much about that anymore.
Rog Lake--once GREAT brook trout fishery-- has been ruined by smallmouth bass; and Conchu Lake, also once a great brook trout fishery, has been ruined by bass and pike. Anytime you have idiots illegally introducing pike or bass into stream trout lakes the fishery will get ruined.
Alton is a TOUGH lake to catch fish on. They are there, but the water is very clear. I've had terrible luck there.
I caught a whitefish on Gaskin once, but not much else.
Winchell is beautiful, but apart from one time when I caught a few trout, the fishing has been really poor. The 1940s-era depth maps for that lake are not very good. The lake is supposed to top out at 160 feet, but I've scoped depths to 187 feet...
I've also had poor luck on Long Island, Vera, Boot, and Davis Lakes---among others.
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Pinetree
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You could add brook trout lakes Skull off the Moose lake and Ahsub lake by Disappointment. Skull got largemouth bass and smallmouth bass. Ahsub got smallmouth bass. I know many lake trout lakes now getting smallmouth,wonder how they will be effected.
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Vikinfan
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I have fished Alton many times and I thnk you can do much better in the BWCA than that lake. having said that one of my good buddies caught a 13lb Walleye out of there 2 years ago.
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arctic
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shock: "and across the street , found lake was also descent up to about the late 80's , held some large splake and rainbows at 1 time. "
Very true. I remember when the word got out one low-snow winter, and there were the tracks of dozens of people on foot, ski, and BICYCLE headed down the Moose Chain to that lake.
What had been a great fishery for LARGE trout was utterly ruined in three weekends.
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Jackfish
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Virtually all the lakes in Quetico are fished out. I'd stay out of that area.
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mr.barley
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For me it would be Kelsey. It's a short portage off of Lac La Croix. It's full of hammer handle pike with sucked in bellies. You could watch a half dozen of them chasing your spinner next to the canoe.
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moose plums
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I second Kelsey for the "cookie cutter" 2lb pike.
Arkansas Man, Dig this 26" Walleye on Jordan Lake. They're in there! :)
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egknuti
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When I was about 9 years old my dad took the family on a hike down an old logging road off the Big Moose loop road to a lake called Serenade, also known as Jonathan Lake. Apparently there are no fish in it!
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x2jmorris
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Super old thread but ... my vote is Pine. Big lake to navigate with wind, deep lake, caught 3 fish the entire trip.
Surprised about the Alton votes though. I usually do well when I am passing through. I have never stayed but it seems like it would be good.
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jamotrade
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Kevheads has Alton pegged. I spent some time there in July of 05. We did not catch many fish but the ones we caught were large. I must say that my main reason for not going back would be the crowds and the wind. Yikes! I've only seen more canoes on Lake One and I don't ever recall wind and waves like that anywhere else.
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PaddleAway
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Big Rice Lake & LaPond. We fished these lakes two evenings, three guys, nothing but, again, one 4" perch. Supposed to be pike in both, but they're both very shallow, perhaps winterkilled...that's our story & we're sticking to it.
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crutch5
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I have to disagree with Clearwater. It has been a few years since ive been there. I think Late 90's. We had always stayed on Turtle Lake and slammed the giant pike. But the end of the 90's seemed to change on turtle lake. We ventured over to clearwater and slammed monster pike there as well. We have always gone mid to end of may up until the fire. Then it has been the quetico ever since.
There is a small grassy bay with a creek flowing out of it that is always full of post spawn suckers and the monster pike are in there gourging themselves. we have landed several pike in the 20 pound range. I'm wondering if this hidden gem has bounced back after the fire.
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jdevries
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Conchu Lake. A designated trout lake so you have to buy a trout stamp before you even wet a line. Didn't even see any trout, only caught a few 6 inch largemouth bass.
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Voyageur
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Few people want to give away their favorite fishing hole so how about a different taack. What is the worst lake you have fished on?
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Arkansas Man
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Jordan between Cattyman and Ima... only thing I ever caught there was a perch! Now my buddy did catch a nice northern close to the gap into the chute!
Bruce
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BigZig
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Vera - never caught a fish there and tried two days. Of course that was in 1975 or so...
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salukiguy
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I have 2. Clearwater Lake near Bald Eagle. The water is very clear as the name states. Supposed to have pike in it but we did not see any fish.
Alton Lake. Once again the water is pretty clear. I like staying on this lake but have not done very well with the fishing.
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silverback
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Slate Lake in the Q. In all fairness, we went in after a monster cold front. The only thing we caught were colds.
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paddlefaster
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Juno lake, a short portage from the south side of Brule lake, the water was so dirty and the burnt/blown down hillsides were very uninviting. I didn't even want to drink the water!
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ILikePike
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lake kelso above alton. fished 5 hours no bites
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shock
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^^ not BW but a local lake by me(hyde lake carver county) that everyone would just drive by and not fished much , word got out about 10"-12" sunnies and at that time the limit was 30 , it was basically cleaned out in 1 summer. LOOSE LIPS SINKS SHIPS !
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shock
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off the O.P. but everyone in my ice fishing clan is sworn to secrecy , but we still get some visitors with having 2 shacks out there , but after sundown i tell everyone to use there innervoice when we catch a big walleye , and there usually gone in half a day if they dont catch anything , not understanding you need to put in sometime which our group does.
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mapsguy1955
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That no name lake in Quetico was just terrible... Saw a GIANT snapping turtle, but not a single sign of a fish.
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arctic
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anthonyp007: "jigga: "Pine Lake. My Brother caught a few smallies but the rest of us got skunked. "
Was at Pine a month ago, slaughtered the smallies and caught a 25 inch walleye in two days. Seriously caught at least 100 smallies between my buddy and I. My thumb skin was peeling off from all the lipping bass!! Had a blast. Thinking you must have just got snake bitten...?"
Smallmouth don't count. Catching them is like having your four-year old drop a worm off the dock to catch sunfish... LOL.
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BWfishingfanatic12
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My vote would have to be Omega. Beautiful lake with a great campsite, but only 1 small pike in an afternoon, evening, and morning of fishing.
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Pinetree
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PIne lake has been a changing lake as Arctic mentioned earlier. The Mn DNR says . A 1959 lake survey reported Walleye had replaced the Lake Trout, and were about to be replaced in turn by Smallmouth Bass. Lake Trout did all but disappear, but the Walleye population persisted despite the presence of what seemed to have been high numbers of Smallmouth Bass. Over the last 30 years DNR Fisheries has attempted to re-establish Lake Trout in this lake. The current (2015) lake management plan (LMP) listed Walleye as the primary management species, with Lake Trout as the secondary species, and began a limited stocking program as a last attempt to re-establish Lake Trout. Long range goals were to maintain a minimum number of lake trout.
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anthonyp007
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jigga: "Pine Lake. My Brother caught a few smallies but the rest of us got skunked. "
Was at Pine a month ago, slaughtered the smallies and caught a 25 inch walleye in two days. Seriously caught at least 100 smallies between my buddy and I. My thumb skin was peeling off from all the lipping bass!! Had a blast. Thinking you must have just got snake bitten...?
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murphylakejim
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Snowbank! Its big, windy, and deep!
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Cedarboy
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My worst lake is Alpine just west off of Seagull. Been going there for 30years, horrible, very bad. For some reason I keep going back...weenk, weenk,knod, knod.... CB
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shock
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Pinetree: "You could add brook trout lakes Skull off the Moose lake Skull lake, it wasn't good 30 years ago. I guess that hasn't changed much. LOL
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Savage Voyageur
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Another case of bad fishing one day, great the next. Many have said that Clearwater is a bad Lake to fish. I’ve had two days on this lake that I caught over a 100 Smallmouth Bass. Also Great Lake for Lakers in the winter.
Pine is another, I’ve caught tons of Walleye, Bass, and Pike on Pine.
Ensign is another, we Went there for ten years straight. Great fishery for huge Smallmouth Bass and medium sized Walleye.
Should have been there yesterday...
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emptynest56
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I wonder what happened to Pine on eastern end. In the 1980s and 90s when I wanted to get my walleye on, we went there. Read the notes of the latest DNR survey. There is real concern in those notes for the walleye population plummeting. The author of the note just stopped short of blaming the increasing SMB population.
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Harv
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WilyMinnow: "Fire Lake - tiny pike Cherokee - skunked Conchu - bait and switch - went for trout, nothing but LM bass
Otherwise a lot of lakes on this thread getting tossed around I must flat out disagree with.... "
Conchu--haven't heard of anyone portaging in to fish it...read somewhere someone thought that lake totally died out for Trout. I haven't been on in it 25 years. How was it getting into it?
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joshawes
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I could also agree I had terrible luck on Boot Lake (next to Fourtown). I went there twice considering lots of people have said it holds some nice size walleyes but I've never been able to land ONE. I only caught two rockbass. I would also like to mention each time we went there it was late July and probably 85 degrees. Based camped there for 3 days once and day tripped there from Fourtown this summer on my way out from Crooked Lake/Friday bay...
But I blame the hot weather ;)
I would also agree that Winchell wasn't good to us as well.
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Pinetree
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Harv: "WilyMinnow: "Fire Lake - tiny pike Cherokee - skunked Conchu - bait and switch - went for trout, nothing but LM bass
Otherwise a lot of lakes on this thread getting tossed around I must flat out disagree with.... "
Conchu--haven't heard of anyone portaging in to fish it...read somewhere someone thought that lake totally died out for Trout. I haven't been on in it 25 years. How was it getting into it?"
Various bass species took over and DNR stopped stocking it.
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djwillco
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lundojam: "vista" +1 for Vista. Only lake I've ever been skunked on in BWCA. Although I'm sure they're in there!
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Tyler W
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Shell, Lynx and Hustler.
I worked on a fish survey crew for a week. We hardly caught anything with gill nets! On Shell lake we pulled the crew leaders first ever empty net. He was stunned. The other lakes were not much better.
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Bumstead
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jigga: "Pine Lake. My Brother caught a few smallies but the rest of us got skunked. "
Pine on east or west side?
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WalleyeHunter24
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Tyler W: "Shell, Lynx and Hustler.
I worked on a fish survey crew for a week. We hardly caught anything with gill nets! On Shell lake we pulled the crew leaders first ever empty net. He was stunned. The other lakes were not much better. "
Wow! I had one of the best trips I ever had in the BWCA on Shell in 2003. We caught in excess of 100 walleye on a 3 day trip including a 32" (released). My canoe buddy caught 6 consecutive 24-26" walleye on 6 consecutive casts. Went back there in 2015 and still caught a decent amount of walleye, but nowhere close to the size average of the 2003 trip. There's a lot more pressure on those lakes now then there was then.
Worst lake I ever fished was Horseshoe off of Lake Three... put in a full day with nothing but a few tiny pike and one SMALL Smallmouth.
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HotDog
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Tyler W: "Shell, Lynx and Hustler.
I worked on a fish survey crew for a week. We hardly caught anything with gill nets! On Shell lake we pulled the crew leaders first ever empty net. He was stunned. The other lakes were not much better. "
I have fond memories of great fishing in Lynx as a teenager. I caught a 20" and a 21" smallmouth back-to-back one time. It's been around 15 years since then, so maybe it's changed??
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TheMadPaddler
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Dad and I didn’t have time to fish Dix much, we tried but nothing. Fished from the campsite and had 1 pike break off a slip bobber and leech. Can’t really say it’s terrible but we had better luck at our other campsites.
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egknuti
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Tyler W: "Shell, Lynx and Hustler.
I worked on a fish survey crew for a week. We hardly caught anything with gill nets! On Shell lake we pulled the crew leaders first ever empty net. He was stunned. The other lakes were not much better. " Wow! Hustler has nice northerns (5+ lbs) and lots of small mouth. On Lynx I had some of my best walleye fishing. I could see walleye 10-15 ft below my canoe and caught well over 20 walleyes in a matter of hours. Shell has produced some trophy northerns as well.
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Ella, nuttin' but dink pike.
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egknuti
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PaddleAway: "Big Rice Lake & LaPond. We fished these lakes two evenings, three guys, nothing but, again, one 4" perch. Supposed to be pike in both, but they're both very shallow, perhaps winterkilled...that's our story & we're sticking to it." I remember people catching large pike in both lakes when I was younger. Fished LaPond some years later and caught many eater size walleye.
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shock
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i've had the least success fishing on Pine also , caught enough for 1 meal but that's it.
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QueticoMike
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WalleyeHunter24: "Tyler W: "Shell, Lynx and Hustler.
I worked on a fish survey crew for a week. We hardly caught anything with gill nets! On Shell lake we pulled the crew leaders first ever empty net. He was stunned. The other lakes were not much better. "
Wow! I had one of the best trips I ever had in the BWCA on Shell in 2003. We caught in excess of 100 walleye on a 3 day trip including a 32" (released). My canoe buddy caught 6 consecutive 24-26" walleye on 6 consecutive casts. Went back there in 2015 and still caught a decent amount of walleye, but nowhere close to the size average of the 2003 trip. There's a lot more pressure on those lakes now then there was then.
Worst lake I ever fished was Horseshoe off of Lake Three... put in a full day with nothing but a few tiny pike and one SMALL Smallmouth. "
I have only been through that way once but the fishing was pretty good. That's funny, I caught a 32 inch walleye in 2003 as well, but that was on Basswood.
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lundojam
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vista
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RackWrangler
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I agree that Pine Lake, far east end of the BWCA, is terrible. We spent three days on that lake in 2017, fishing 4 plus hours each day, and it was the worst of any of our trips. We caught fish, but mostly small smallies, and we had to work for those.
Interestingly enough, on our way out, we ran into DNR guys doing a survey on Mcfarland Lake (outside the BWCA, but a necessary lake to get to Pine). They said that McFarland had a fantastic Smallmouth population. While we were chatting with them, they brought in a gill net that had at least five, 20" smallies in it. They said that this was fairly typical. They said that nobody fishes that lake except the locals that live on it.
I just checked the Lakefinder site and the newest data they have posted for Mcfarland is from 2013, but even that lists 27 smallmouth bass caught on gill nets, with an average weight of 1.95 lbs, and the majority of the fish being in the 15-19" range. Pine Lake (2016 data) shows an average of 1.65 lbs for the 27 fish caught, and majority of those in the 12-14" range.
-RW
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treehorn
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We did very poorly on Banadad after a cold front came through.
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buzz17
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Another vote for Conchu. Very clear water and we could see large schools of big largemouth bass following our canoes. We did catch a couple, but no trout as advertised. We also saw a few pike floating in the weeds. If you are in the area, focus on the Kawishiwi....much better fishing to be had.
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thlipsis29
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Another vote for Conchu since I was in the canoe with Buzz17. Definitely not worth the trip from our site on the Kawishiwi.
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icefishbaby
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Any with motor boats. I come to the BWCA for quiet, would rather a poor fishing lake to myself than have motor boats coming and going when up in the BWCA.
As for fish, probably Gijikiki. Traveled for lakers twice there, never even managed a bite.
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airmorse
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Others will say differently, but Boot lake (ep23) is devoid of all aquatic life in my opinion. I have fished that lake several times and come up empty every time.
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Laketrout63
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We have tried pine lake,ep68,on east side,a few times. It is a beauty of a lake,but we have never done well fishing. Just some smallish,no lakers,no walleyes! We gave up fishing pine! Marc
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HotDog
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Some people might be surprised by this, but my worst lake for fishing multiple days was Winchell. Our group of five guys base camped for five days and one guy caught a small lake trout and I hooked an 8lbs pike. Two fish. Literally. We caught a bunch of bass and northerns in Wanihigan and every other lake around the east end of Winchell, though. Beautiful lake and campsite, but terrible fishing.
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gopher2307
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At risk of being sternly corrected, but pretty interested in hearing I missed 'em....Bald Eagle Lake was pretty rough for me. Spent a day without a bite drifting the whole lake. That dead sea seemed to be a consistent 10' deep.
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mapsguy1955
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Unnamed Lake in Quetico... Fished for hours on a beautiful day and didn't get one bite, but did see a giant snapping turtle!
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carmike
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I hate fishing Ensign....not because the fishing is bad (it's surprisingly good, actually). There are just so many boats, especially on the west end.
And Pine, up the Gunflint. Just so prone to wind.
Funny that Alton gets such a bad rap....I once observed two canoes absolutely CRUSH the fish in there.
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Captn Tony
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West side of Ensign, have been there 3 times and all I have caught is a few small smallmouth.
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WilyMinnow
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Fire Lake - tiny pike Cherokee - skunked Conchu - bait and switch - went for trout, nothing but LM bass
Otherwise a lot of lakes on this thread getting tossed around I must flat out disagree with....
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shock
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WilyMinnow: "Fire Lake - tiny pike Cherokee - skunked Conchu - bait and switch - went for trout, nothing but LM bass
Otherwise a lot of lakes on this thread getting tossed around I must flat out disagree with.... " yes sometimes your trip happens to coincide with bad weather/front conditions . example , one opener(5 day trip) in SAK a 4 person group we caught a total of 3 lake trout. and the flip side on cherokee lake some friends of mine caught some dandy lakers on an opener trip.
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jigga
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Pine Lake. My Brother caught a few smallies but the rest of us got skunked.
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zimrl
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We tried Conchu last year with no luck. There are Trout in there, but they're picky son of a guns! I could see 1 or 2 follow my lure up to shore a few times but wouldn't bite.
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mrguppy
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I'd have to put my two cents on Angleworm Lake. 3 days, not a single bite. Beautiful lake though. :)
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HighnDry
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Jackfish: "Virtually all the lakes in Quetico are fished out. I'd stay out of that area."
hahaha! +1.
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old_salt
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The one with recent fish kill...
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Pinetree
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It was in the 70's Skull lake you could catch brookies up to 5 pounds before fishing pressure increased. It has had other fish problems for 30 years.
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nofish
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HotDog: "Some people might be surprised by this, but my worst lake for fishing multiple days was Winchell. Our group of five guys base camped for five days and one guy caught a small lake trout and I hooked an 8lbs pike. Two fish. Literally. We caught a bunch of bass and northerns in Wanihigan and every other lake around the east end of Winchell, though. Beautiful lake and campsite, but terrible fishing."
Winchell has always been tough for me as well. Haven't put a ton of time into it but I've only managed a few very small small mouth. I'm guessing there are times of the year and certain methods where you can be successful however its never lined up with my trips through there.
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Blackhawk
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Elton Lake just west of Little Saganaga. Have trolled through the lake over twenty times and have caught a total of five northerns - none over two pounds.
If anybody has caught a 30 inch pike or larger from this lake I'd like to know.
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carmike
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Savage Voyageur: "Ensign is another, we Went there for ten years straight. Great fishery for huge Smallmouth Bass and medium sized Walleye.
Should have been there yesterday..."
I'm with you there. The fishing in Ensign can be surprisingly good....Must be some great spawning going on there, given the pressure that lake gets.
It's also got tanker largemouth bass. Kinda fun to chase them that far nort'.
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ChazzTheGnome
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I would have to say that the worst lake in the BW changes with every trip I take. It seems to be the worst lake is whatever lake I am on. It certainly doesn't have anything to do with me and my apparent complete lack of fishing skill and patience.
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emptynest56
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Another down vote for Vera Lake. With Wind and Vera Lakes you can hardly believe that the DNR has found as many walleyes in each that they have. Could be that these two along with Boot are only "on" maybe 2 weeks in early summer and 1 week in the fall. The rest of the time-no fish.
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