Looks like I'll be spending 10 days on these lakes. Don't know much at all about them There will be four of us with two boys ages 12 and 16. We like to fish and swim. Can anyone help with info? Thanks.

You're not going in very far, especially considering that you'll be there 10 days. You do have some nice day trips available though, the headliner being Louisa Falls. Go through Sunday to Meadows and on to Agnes, then paddle north a short distance (a mile?) and you'll be at Louisa Falls. A little hard to see because of the trees, but you'll definitely hear it. All will love it. The falls is about 100' high, but has a "kettle" halfway down - perfect for soaking under the falls.

A note of caution though... the two Meadows portages, more so the one from Meadows to Agnes, are rock-strewn like you can't imagine. Relatively flat, but virtual stepping stones the entire distance. Walk carefully without worrying about the time it's taking. Victory is making it to the other end safely.

Agnes is a beautiful lake and good fishing, too. Enjoy!

I'm fond of site 12X on Burke and liked 1AX on Sunday. Louisa Falls is a must do day trip including a swim in the Devils Bathtub. Your kids will want to move to one of the adjacent sites (and there's a really nice one just onto Louisa - a lake that deserves more attention.) You could round trip to North Bay across to Agnes and return via Meadows.

Day trip to Lost Bay and/or Isabella. The trip from North to Isabella is one of my favorites. A tame cliff jumping opportunity at west end of Isabella. And since you are not traveling much, consider the beach site on Bayley besides portage to Burke. You'll see traffic but that will be so everywhere on Burke and Sunday.

Bill, I read your campsite reviews of Burke at another website. Thanks for that info.

I should say that this trip is to introduce my brother and his teenage sons to canoe camping. My brother was in a car accident a couple of years ago and has spine issues. This is the reason we are not going in far. Originally I wanted to base out of North Bay but I'm not sure my brother can take sitting in the canoe and making those portages to get there. We did a two hour shakedown paddle 2 weeks ago and his back got real tight from twisting while paddling.

I'd rather daytrip without the heavy packs. I've been across the Meadows portages twice (to the falls) and not sure if I want my bro carrying a canoe on those. I have visions of him blowing out an ACL. He's also put on some weight and not in the greatest shape.

They are here for the fishing and I'm clueless as to what's in Burke and Sunday. I'm assuming smallmouth have made their way in but what about other species? Anyone have any luck?

Given the new information, I would suggest a BWCA trip, with a tow to Washington Is on Basswood. That's about as easy as it gets. Great Waldo& bass fish out to US Point. If it's not working, you can cut trip short.

Nah, we have an Agnes permit and RABC's etc. for July 30th. I figure I'll know right away how his back is going to do on the portage from the tow boat to PP. I'll do double duty if he can only go one way.

I told him he can back out (pun intended) if he's not feeling up to it but he really wants to go for him and his boys. We will be making a nice camp with comfortable amentities. Not to mention some good sipping booze. Should be good for us to catch up a little.

Both lakes are supposed to have walleye, pike, trout, smallmouth & largemouth bass. I was looking at a similar trip with my son last year; but ended up going elsewhere, so I haven't fished them myself. Good luck & have a good trip.

I'll be honest, not a fan of Burke lake. Fishing was just lousy every time I've been there. That experience has not been shared by all, however!

Sunday might be a better lake than many people realize, if only because most folks just pass on through on their way to Agnes.

If I was going in, but not going far, I just might stick around North Bay and Lost Bay. I do think the fishing is pretty good there. I just couldn't get over my previous experience in Burke.

Joe

I swear I commented on this before but don't see my post.

I took my 7 year old on his first Q trip last summer in August. On Burke we caught smallies and lakers. I have heard it has walleyes and northerns too. We didn't fish hard but it was productive. For bass I just had my soon use a senko wacky style. He pulled in the bass pretty good was easy for a kid to do.

We stayed at the first island after the yellow brick portage. It was nice but I wouldn't stay there with kids again. Not very open, kids like more open sites to do some casting or swimming or rock throwing.

T

I think I might have passed Tom T and his crew camped on the edge if the beach portage to Burke.

quote Banksiana: "I think I might have passed Tom T and his crew camped on the edge if the beach portage to Burke."

We made North Bay on day one and saw a bunch of Dads with sons camped on the Beach portage. Bayley Bay was quite a ride with the westerlies about 1-2 feet. This was Thursday July 30th.

At North Bay we hoped the northern site on the big island as you enter the bay was open. The wind pounded us real good going up the west side of the island and with a 90 lb. boy in my bow we couldn't get east around the nw corner to where the site was. We beached the canoe and decided to walk overland and see if it was open.

It was but the wind was really up now being 3:00 PM. What I did was pull the bow in 3-4 feet of water and wrestle it to the corner until the surf pounded me too hard to go further. We portaged everything to the site from there. I was exhausted but it turned out to be a fine site up over the water where we stayed for 3 nights.

We then went to a large site at the north end of the bay. Had excellent fishing and stayed another 4 nights before moving down to Sunday Lake. I do not recommend taking the route through Anchor Lake unless you like difficult portages. Our 16 year old boy lost his boot down in the muck which I had a hard time digging out. This portage along a dried up creek south of anchor was simply nasty. Floating bog with lots of muck. The pic below is the short creek from no name north down to Anchor. It's floating bog with a 2 foot wide, 4 foot deep creek that we pulled/pushed through.

Got a great penninsula site on Sunday and had decent fishing where I landed a fat 25 inch laker and 20 minutes later lost something really big. I had it on but couldn't get it to move much in 60 feet of water. It was there for a good 10 minutes before the barbless treble just popped out. I'll always wonder what it was.

We kept the laker and it turns out to be full of eggs. I felt a little bad after finding that but will say that it was probably the best tasting fish I've had up there in 17 trips. I did get the grand slam on this trip with even a few nice largemouth to boot. We spent 2 nights here before heading out.


The creek from no name to Anchor Lake

Nice trip. I love North Bay. ~JOE~

That route to Anchor and out is as tough as anything within a couple of hours of Prairie. I went into Anchor last year. Started the day with the log/bog portage out of Kahshahpiwi and finished with the log/bog portage of equal length on the way to Anchor.

With the solo boat I managed to paddled the grassed in creek to Sunday at an incredibly slow and nearly impenetrable grass/marsh- but it looked much better than the alternative that you engaged in.

Nice camp on Anchor though.

quote Banksiana: "That route to Anchor and out is as tough as anything within a couple of hours of Prairie. I went into Anchor last year. Started the day with the log/bog portage out of Kahshahpiwi and finished with the log/bog portage of equal length on the way to Anchor.

With the solo boat I managed to paddled the grassed in creek to Sunday at an incredibly slow and nearly impenetrable grass/marsh- but it looked much better than the alternative that you engaged in.

Nice camp on Anchor though.

"

The pic I posted of our boats IS the creek that you went through. We paddled some of it but it just became too narrow and too deep to pole so I got out and lined/pulled it through. My 13 year old bowman escaped packless to to Anchor lake so I had to pass one of my packs to the boat behind me to lose some of the weight.

We wanted to stay on Anchor but the site was taken by a large group so with little energy left made it to Sunday. This was quite an adventurous day for the 3 newbies. The young one wanted to know if it was my worst day ever in Quetico. I told him no but it was in the top 10. :) But I'll say this - the blueberries were fantastic on North Bay. Never seen anything like it.

Newbies after the creek drag. You can't tell from the pic but they are standing on an ancient 2 foot high beaver dam.



My bowman 13 year old Steven.

Year we went in was in the fall and Anchor to the south from Sunday in the meadows was dry that year and we encountered no bog. Just a easy carry thru the meadow grass.
That one campsite of the point in Anchor looks pretty nice. We kept on to North Bay.