Heading into EP4 (Crab) the 26th-30th of September. We'll basecamp on Crab and fish there and day trip to other nearby lakes. This will be the group's third BWCA trip and we've had no luck fishing on our two previous trips (despite this we've had awesome trips). This year, we're trying to up our fishing game.

To date, I've:
1. Read extensively from the board
2. Reached out to several people who've reported about fishing success here
3. Downloaded depth maps and studied aerial imagery
4. Read articles about structure and specifically fall fishing
5. Annotated maps with areas people have found success before
6. Purchased recommended tackle and equipment (including a Hawkeye 1c depth finder)

Our primary target is bass, followed by walleye and then everything else. Based on the advice we've gotten here, we're going to bring top water lures, various depths of rapalas, jigs, slip bobbers and live bait (worms or minnows). General plan is to use lures until we find the fish and then either continue with lures or anchor and switch to jigs with live bait. Also willing to try the TGO method.

I feel like I'm much better prepared than in years past, but I'd like to talk to someone who knows these lakes and knows fall fishing and develop a specific plan of attack. Ideally, someone who generally would use the same techniques and can help us refine our plan. This may involve going over the maps together, discussing times of day and weather conditions.

This is probably best as a one-on-one conversation, maybe phone, email or even screen-sharing. If someone is interested in helping, please reach out.

After reading some more, topwater is probably mostly over for the season. Probably concentrating on finding them with lures and then using plastics and worms on jigs. Would still love some help on best locations.

I have not been to Crab nor the adjoining lakes. However, I did just come out of South Arm of Knife Lake on 9/21 and I can tell you the smallies are deep where I was. I routinely caught 4+lb. smallies when trolling 35' or deeper while I was on the hunt for Lakers. They will rise to take a lure, you just need to be thinking in the 15' and deeper divers. That's just my personal experience on a completely different lake from last week though. Your conditions may be entirely different. Enjoy!

Thanks for the reply. We'll be looking for them everywhere, but we'll start with your advice.

My best fishing on Cummings has always been on the western (much less busy) end of the lake. As someone mentioned, this time of year the bass are probably going to be deep and schooled up. If you can find them (very nice having a depth finder for this), you can have a blast. Casting shorelines might not be your best bet, though. Just my .02.

Good luck and let us know how you do!

Thanks! I'll post pics if we get on 'em!

Nearly every cast on topwater near the beds (the V) near campsite 310-318 produced for us here.

It was the most fun ever.

This was around Fathers Day though - so prime fishing season. still... really liked it. We stayed on the 310 campsite which was really very nice, but pretty windy.

//Oh - NM, you're already there.

How was the fishing?

Tough, but better than in years past. I was glad I got all the help I did. I owe thanks to you and several others on here and will do it right soon, but right now I'm buried in work.

I just wanted to report to everyone about our fishing adventures and thank a LOT of folks on this board for the help. We had taken so much advice from people on this board that our outfitter was looking at my annotated map to learn my secrets, rather than the other way around!

First thing Thursday morning, we caught a keeper northern on our second cast from shore of our campsite. I thought we were in for fishing nirvana, but as it turns out we had to settle for wilderness nirvana with a few fish thrown in.

The wind made it essentially impossible to stay on or drift over hot-spots in deep water, so we spent most of the first two days focusing on shallow weed-beds. We did spend some time trolling and drifting with jigs and deep rapalas. We'd taken some advice that said start shallow and go deeper until you find them. We tried a lot of topwater areas that looked great, but the recent cold snap must have pushed the fish deeper. Aside from that one northern, we managed to bring in two more over the next two days, but it was tough times. We only fished Crab because the wind made travelling difficult and our basecamp was well protected.

Saturday, the sun came out and the wind died and we decided to try other areas and focus on moving water. We went through Little Crab and Korb and up the Korb river some. We fished the channel between LC and Korb and picked up one bass and then the inlet into Korb. One bass was the only result.

We moved up to the NE side of Korb to try our luck at pan fishing during lunch. We used bobbers and worms. An hour of fishing produced one sunfish about 4 inches long. (This will be important later).

On our way back to camp, I finally pulled the deepest lure in my tackle box. A purple husky jerk that ran to 30 ft. We trolled for about 5 minutes before hooking into a solid walleye. Nothing to write home about, but enough to get the excitement back into our boat.


That was just as we were leaving Korb. The same lure produced a 25" northern in the northern-most bay of Crab. '

Thanks to the husky jerk, we made a fish-fry and ate like kings. Thanks to the 3" sunfish, I caught the most fish of the trip. Earning my bragging rights forever.

Special thanks to QuenticoMike, Shock, ddietz336, djwillco, vno, MN Mike, treehorn, TGO and more for all the help.

You need to go late May to early June and see what fishing can be up north. Thanks for sharing your experience!

QueticoMike: "You need to go late May to early June and see what fishing can be up north. Thanks for sharing your experience!"

+1 and fishing opener for lake trout !

I go there to get away from people, so I'm not sure May/June would work for me. We do sometimes talk about a prime fishing trip, but keep seeking solitude. We saw one party of two canoes our entire trip and I consider that too much :).

They had covered a lot of water, but were paddling with the two-piece plastic paddles you get with an inflatable raft. They'd repaired one by lashing a stick to it and duct-taping it and they had 5-6 extra sticks pre-cut for the paddle out. They'd also gone way out of their way to get to our campsite and asked how to get to the portage. I often feel like I'm an unprepared rookie, but we were the crusty veterans for once.