My wife and I are heading out of EP 37 next week. Our tentative plan is to get to Malberg on the first day, find a good site, and set up a base camp. Our trip is five nights and the focus will be on relaxing and fishing. We would consider moving once or twice, however, if there are any nearby lakes that might be even nicer for fishing and relaxing than Malberg. We don't really care what species of fish we catch - we just want to have fun.

Does anyone have suggestions on outstanding day trips from Malberg? Or nearby lakes that would be worth moving to for one or two of our five nights? We don't want to do a travel intensive trip, but we wouldn't hesitate to spend just the first night on Malberg and then push in a couple hours further, if there was a great destination within easy reach. We need to leave ourselves a pretty easy paddle out on the last day (we were thinking about moving to Polly for our last night to give ourselves a shorter paddle back out to the EP).

We'll definitely do the day trip that involves traveling out of one side of Malberg, paddling the river for a while, and then coming back in to Malberg from the other side. Any other suggestions?

Going out west end of Malberg, paddling river to Fishdance and Amber is highly advised. Fishing is good through that whole stretch and you can check out the pictographs.

Pick a direction:

Southwest - Fishdance Lake and the pictographs. Fish the Kawishiwi River along the way. The pictographs are mystical and absolutely worth the paddle time to see.
Northwest - Beaver, Adams, Smite loop. A little visited area with some fishing potential.
Northeast - to Makwa Lake for the huge cliffs. If you have the time, consider going to Little Saganaga Lake for a night. It's a beautiful lake with some very nice island sites.
East - Louse River to Frond and Boze Lakes. Be prepared to deal with beaver dams today. This route is worth the visit because of its solitude and wild beauty.

Hope you enjoy this area.

quote Michwall2: "Pick a direction:


Southwest - Fishdance Lake and the pictographs. Fish the Kawishiwi River along the way. The pictographs are mystical and absolutely worth the paddle time to see.
Northwest - Beaver, Adams, Smite loop. A little visited area with some fishing potential.
Northeast - to Makwa Lake for the huge cliffs. If you have the time, consider going to Little Saganaga Lake for a night. It's a beautiful lake with some very nice island sites.
East - Louse River to Frond and Boze Lakes. Be prepared to deal with beaver dams today. This route is worth the visit because of its solitude and wild beauty.


Hope you enjoy this area."

Thanks for the great suggestions. I've heard that Little Sag is a beautiful lake. It looks a little far from Malberg for a day trip, but it will be a good destination if we decide to add a couple of longer travel days to our trip.

I enjoyed going up to Makwa a few years back in the Spring. It's a cool lake and it has lake trout. We spent 2 nights on Malberg and 2 on Makwa. I enjoyed Makwa the most because we had the whole lake to ourselves. Good choice on that area - once you get past Polly you'll see less people.

An easy daytrip is the loop from the portage in the NE arm of Malberg heading west down Kawishiwi River to the NW portage back into Malberg. This takes you on both river and lake paddling with beautiful scenery and good fishing the whole way. Highly recommended, easy downriver paddle, if you are looking to spend a day relaxing and catching a wide variety of fish from Walleyes to Northerns, to Smallmouth Bass.