I've had a rough idea for some time what our 4-person group would be doing for our early June trip. Just sat down with maps and stuff and worked out some detail. This is only my (and one of the others') second Quetico trip, and mostly in an area we've not been before. I'm interested in thoughts/caveats/warnings/must-sees/camp here spots/etc. from you all that have traveled the area. Not by a mile, but fishing's probably priority #1. None of us are ate up with fishing walleye, but we'll sure take them as incidentals. I'd love to score my 1st lake trout. SMB are really the deal for us though. And, as information, we're single-portagers, and all hangers for this trip.

Pretty sure the exact path I have in mind, given lakes, will be clear.

Beaverhouse
Quetico
Conk
Little Jean
Jean
Yeh
Lonely
Walter
Elizabeth
Jesse
Maria
Pickeral
Batch
Nym

I can answer this:
Some of the best Lake trout fishing we had on a somewhat similar route was the space between your entry on Beaverhouse and the first portage into Quetico Lake.

We were trolling along with a westerly wind and picked up several lakers in Beaverhouse before we even got started! You are going into beautiful country. You don't mention the time of year you are going and that will have a greater impact on Lakers than other factors. Quetico and Cirrus are also Laker Lakes.

tumblehome: "You don't mention the time of year you are going..."

Mentioned early June, but perhaps not prominently enough - my bad. Entering June 3rd. I presume that's not a bad thing as it relates to the lakers...???

It will depend on how fast the water has or has not warmed up by that point for laker fishing. Quetico is a good grand slam lake but I have never personally fished it. It's a lot of water to cover. Jean is also rated highly. When you go through Lonely and Walter, walleyes feature prominently. The shoreline across from the entrance to the portage to Lonely creek is supposed to be productive. Walter is rumored to have a reef located a couple hundred yards out and facing the portage to Elizabeth for walleyes as well. I can't recall if lakers are present on that lake, others will know. Jesse, on the northeastern end by the very good island campsite, harbors big walleye (night fishing). You wil have fun at that trip!

Oh sorry about missing that the trip is June. I missed that. That's a good time of the year to go. I'm going in June 8.

If it's not too warm this spring the lakers won't be very deep. There is truly nothing better for me than catching a laker when in the Q. Most if the time I let them go. There are too precious and beautiful to eat, most of the time.

Enjoy.

Awesome!

Looks like a great trip. We did the exact route to Lonely back in 2010 when we did our cross-Quetico trip, but then we headed south to Sturgeon from there. The Yeh-to-Lonely portage is just short of a mile long, but not as bad as legend has it. Just make sure you start the portage in the bottom bay of Yeh, not in the bay before the bottom where some of the maps show it.

Really appreciate the input, all.

Beginning to think I may have lucked us into a pretty good route!

Curious question... Is there actually a bad route in the Q? In my world, just being there makes it good!

I 99% agree with you that there is no bad route in the Quetico. The other 1% is the Cache River to Ferguson Lake portage. It is the canoeing on the river and the fishing on the lake that make it worth doing once in a lifetime (I was dumb enough to do it twice). This portage was even taken off the official map from 1980 - 2000.
About 1500 meters and 800 of it is waist deep muck.

Jackfish: " Just make sure you start the portage in the bottom bay of Yeh, not in the bay before the bottom where some of the maps show it."

+1 I have never been on the new portage but the old one has a lot of swamp walking.

Little Jean great for SMB... check out my trip report on this area. We had amazing fishing! Have a hoot!

We caught a lot of really nice( up to 27 inch) walleye in Walter the first week of June last year as well as some really nice 17-19 inch smallies. The only part of our route that mirrored yours was the Nym to Lonely stretch and honestly there are smallmouth and walleye everywhere with lakers and pike here and there. You will have fun!