Hello all, just wondering about both Moon and Meads lakes. We are heading to that area with some kids, Middle School age, and we have never been to Meads but are familiar with that area. We have struggled to catch fish around there but have heard Meads can have solid fishing. We have not been there. We will spend 2 nights on Meads, 2 on Caribou and 1 somewhere else.

We are also planning a bushwack to Moon from Swallow Lake. We like the adventure and this is a pretty calm route for 5 nights. Is there anyone who would offer some insight into Moon? Is it worth the effort in there to catch some fish? I cant imagine people venture back there very often. I like hitting dead end lakes, can lead to some good fishing.

We usually fish for bass but like to mix in some walleye and pike either seem to be everywhere or turned off for us on this route. I know there are some walleye on Meads but not sure where to focus our time.

I did a search for moon and only came up with 1 other post about it.

thanks for your time.

Meeds is a pretty good fishing lake. It reportedly has walleye but we didn't really go after them when we were there because the smallmouth fishing was tremendous. Lots of fish and some good sizes too. We stayed on the island site on the western part of the lake and caught many nice fish right from shore. Quiet lake.

The portage into Meeds from Poplar is a long and somewhat difficult one, mainly due to a significant elevation gain right from the start. After that it settles down a bit. But there is an easier option if you go through Lizz to Caribou and access Meeds that way. There are 4 portages if you go that way but the longest is 68 and the last two are very short. Unless of course, you like adventure.

To give you an idea of travel time, we did a day trip leaving from Meeds, not particularly early, through Caribou, Horseshoe, Allen, Pillsbery, Swallow and back to Meeds with lunch and waiting out a storm on Caribou and were back in camp before dinnertime.

Don 't know anything about Moon, looks like an interesting lake, good luck on the bushwhack.

Thanks, yes, we are familiar with Horseshoe and Caribou area, just never been to Meads. Usually a moose cow and baby around south horseshoe area. We had heard the bass fishing there can be solid and we usually have a little trouble on this route. Meads might give us a little success and the adventure of trying to get to moon will make for a good day trip/memory on a very relaxed route.
Just wondering if Moon is worth it from a fishing perspective.

Was the western site a nice one? I think i heard both islands are decent but the most westerly mainland site sorta stinks.

thanks again

contact carl at rockwood. perhaps the previous owner left him some info on that lake.
for some reason i was thinking either dan cooke or bear paulson had done a winter xxski trek through those lakes. would be a bushwack, for sure!

MP, we did not check out the western site. I had also read that it was the least desirable site but then I stumbled on a report somewhere that said it was just fine.
The second island site is very nice, lacking only a clear view of the water from the site. Fishing was good from shore and the site itself was very accommodating.

I made it into moon on my Sep. 2017 trip. Only fished it for around an hour and pulled in several small pike. I followed the river out of Swallow as far as i could go then took the left side. There was a beaver pond that i stayed south of and put in on the back side. The satellite pic does not show the pond. it was deep enough to paddle the rest of the way to moon with one small lift over a second dam.

MarshallPrime: "Thanks, yes, we are familiar with Horseshoe and Caribou area, just never been to Meads. Usually a moose cow and baby around south horseshoe area. We had heard the bass fishing there can be solid and we usually have a little trouble on this route. Meads might give us a little success and the adventure of trying to get to moon will make for a good day trip/memory on a very relaxed route.
Just wondering if Moon is worth it from a fishing perspective.


Was the western site a nice one? I think i heard both islands are decent but the most westerly mainland site sorta stinks.


thanks again"

Your information is correct. We stayed in the middle island site on Meads for a few days and it was nice. The western site is not that great.

There was moose sign on almost all the portages in the area. We also camped on Gaskin for a few days and there was moose sign everywhere in camp. I set up my tent right next to an obvious moose travel corridor/bedding area. There were a few trees in camp that also showed obvious signs of bull moose rubs. Never saw one however.

It is a nice area.

MarshallPrime: "

We are also planning a bushwack to Moon from Swallow Lake. We like the adventure and this is a pretty calm route for 5 nights. Is there anyone who would offer some insight into Moon? Is it worth the effort in there to catch some fish? I cant imagine people venture back there very often. I like hitting dead end lakes, can lead to some good fishing.

We usually fish for bass but like to mix in some walleye and pike either seem to be everywhere or turned off for us on this route. I know there are some walleye on Meads but not sure where to focus our time.

I did a search for moon and only came up with 1 other post about it.

thanks for your time.
"

I did this bushwack in August 2018 with my 16 year old son, with much the same experience as Willfess provided. The difference is the creek was low enough and overgrown enough that when we went, we could only follow it for a couple hundred feet at most. After that, we walked the creek, and actually slid our canoe over the small trees that were completely arched over the creek, using the branches to support the weight of the canoe and just pushing it along, 10-15 feet at a time. It was tiring, but way easier than trying to weave through the forest, although it certainly would have possible that way too. When we got to the beaver dam, we put the canoe back in the water above it and were able to paddle/pull against the trees in the flooded forest until we got to more open water that led up into Moon. If you check Google Maps and see the open areas to the east of Moon, we were able to paddle that entire length, and saved a whole lot of extra work. If that wasn't an option (no beaver dam, really low water), that would have been a horrible area to get through as its very boggy and mucky. Luckily we didn't have to worry about that.

We stayed for a couple hours, caught a dozen or so pike in the 16-23" range, lost one bigger fish that was in the upper 20's, mabye 30", and ran into one of the most confused and angry beavers I have seen in my time in the BW. It was clear he wasn't used to dealing with humans in HIS lake. The lake is very dark stained, so we weren't able to see much below the surface, but there were sufficient weeds and we couldn't troll crankbaits without getting hung up, so most of the lake is fairly shallow (less than 15', most way less). We checked out the "campsite" area, which you can find marked on some maps. It wasn't much, but there is still evidence of fire use, maybe from people visiting in winter. We also found the narrow passage between the 2 parts of the lake, and paddled into the northern portion to explore. We didn't fish that portion of the lake, just the southern portion.

It was a fun experience to go where few others go, and despite the extra work to get in there, we really enjoyed it. I'll add some pictures when I get home tonight.

lindylair: "MP, we did not check out the western site. I had also read that it was the least desirable site but then I stumbled on a report somewhere that said it was just fine.
The second island site is very nice, lacking only a clear view of the water from the site. Fishing was good from shore and the site itself was very accommodating.



"

x2

I've bushwhacked into Moon in the winter, and on the left side too. We skied around a bunch of the shoreline. Unfortunately, my Dad's fishing gene did not get passed down, I only went for the sake of seeing the lake.

Moon Lake Photos:

SE of Moon Lake just past the beaver dam and flooded forest areas.

Heading East into Moon, about halfway up the creek

First Moon Lake Pike

A few more photos:

Moon Lake "campsite"

Looking north from campsite

Channel connecting the two parts of Moon Lake

Some pics of the west site on Meeds. It was a little overgrown, but not that bad a site. We had decent fishing right from camp.

Cowdoc, I got a chuckle from your second photo. The guy in the bug screen does not appear to be having fun or hopefully just doesn't like his photo taken!

He behaves badly during photo ops......class clown child

Good to hear it is not a dislike of the BWCA! I've got a child like that too!

Thanks for the info everyone, sounds like it might be a little rough getting in but looks like a cool lake ad maybe find a couple of those larger pike if we spend a whole day there. Great info. You guys are great and also cool to see that people have been there in the last couple years.

Where was that camp site located?

The site is towards the NW portion of the southern part of the lake, on a rocky point. I have it marked on this google map (sorry for the quality).

awesome, thanks...looks like a good lunch spot.

We bushwhacked into Moon...a long time ago. Eight years? Ten years? Who knows. It wasn't easy, but wasn't very tough either.

Way back when Moon held more pike than any lake I've ever been on. All small. They were so aggressive that we had more than one actually bounce off the hull of the canoe in hot pursuit of a lure.

If your kids are up for adventure, & want fishing action, go. Cool little lake.

Just adding to this thread in case anyone stumbles across it looking for info in the future. :-) We bushwacked into Moon lake last fall, but unlike the others on this thread we went straight through the woods at the closest point between Swallow and Moon Lake. Fun and doable bushwack, but don't follow our route if you want to get a canoe through! Too thick for that.

djwillco: "Just adding to this thread in case anyone stumbles across it looking for info in the future. :-) We bushwacked into Moon lake last fall, but unlike the others on this thread we went straight through the woods at the closest point between Swallow and Moon Lake. Fun and doable bushwack, but don't follow our route if you want to get a canoe through! Too thick for that. "

Great picture! I laid down on that point over your right shoulder for a while, & the creek leading to Swallow is just to your right. Thanks for the stroll down memory lane!