Heading up again in a couple of weeks. Am curious about fishing conditions in these two lakes. Was in McAree three weeks ago and walleyes were hot; smallies were not. Curious about water levels as well. Thanks

AdamX

See my post in the Quetico smallmouth thread. If water levels stay high, that strategy might still apply.

Adam,

I was on McAree June 14 thru 21. Fished Pulling and Pond as well. Worst smallmouth fishing ever. Any idea as to why?

Worst black flys as well.

RunningFox: "Adam,


I was on McAree June 14 thru 21. Fished Pulling and Pond as well. Worst smallmouth fishing ever. Any idea as to why?


Worst black flys as well. "

Not sure what was up with the smallies. At first I thought it was the high water, but we were up there a couple of years ago in June 2022 when the flooding was off the charts and smallies were biting then. Maybe they were hugging the shallows? Couldn’t locate the portage to Pond, so didn’t get a chance to fish there.

We pulled up stakes on Father’s Day after base camping on the middle island in central McAree. We got out just as the black flies were heating up, but the mosquitoes were thick the week of our trip (worst in 25 years in my opinion). Were you the guys on the next island over at the 5-star campsite?

AdamX

MichiganMan: "See my post in the Quetico smallmouth thread. If water levels stay high, that strategy might still apply."

Gotcha. Thanks for that info.

Adam,

When we came in on the 14th all the camp sites were taken. So we made camp on the south-side of one the two big Islands at the south end of McAree before it narrows into the Namakon river. It used to be a an unmarked 5 star camp site, but with the recent fire it has been abandoned and now would get zero stars. No shade whatsoever!

The portage into Pond is on the left of the inlet; the Mckenzie map shows it on right. We saw a moose on Pond on June 19th.

AdamXChicago: "Heading up again in a couple of weeks. Am curious about fishing conditions in these two lakes. Was in McAree three weeks ago and walleyes were hot; smallies were not. Curious about water levels as well. Thanks

AdamX"

Water was very high. Would be very hard getting up the outflow from Russell into Sturgeon.

We struggled with fishing these two lakes aside from hot smallie fishing In northern sturgeon.