Recommendations?? 6 day 5 night trip - 4 of us, all able-bodied men, but I am the only one with BWCA/Quetico experience. I usually travel the Q, but have been to the BWCA years ago. Looking for a trip recommendation in the BWCA for great northern fishing. Good walleye fishing would be a bonus. Likely that 2 of the other 3 have little or no fishing experience.... and I'm a dabbler. I can hold my own, but have not earned a walleye hunter badge. :)

Don't really care what entry point. Probably one of the 2 weeks following Labor Day.

Thanks for any guidance.

First, I looked at your profile. You like shooting and running. I thought... are you a bank robber??? Haha! Then I saw your quote thing and dismissed that thought.

Anyway, try Lake One to Alice and a little beyond on the river. Good area for walleye for us dabblers.

That made me laugh..... those are two SEPARATE hobbies. :)

Thanks for the recommendation

If you want to base camp and fish, Knife is a great place to hang out. It takes about 4 hours on the dot (double carrying) to get there from the Sucker-Birch portage (entering on Moose). We took tows both times last year to save time (very appreciated for the first trip with 15mph headwind). There are a bunch of campsites and great fishing all around with some great day trip opportunities like Eddy Falls, maybe a visit up to Ottertrack or Cherry, or even down to Kekekabic. I loved the area and will be back many times, I think. Not this year since I went twice last year, but it's too great not to go back.

You have a good amount of time up there, not sure if you plan to travel every day or want to layover a night or two. I haven't measured out the mileage on this trip but I think it would be pretty doable and a darn nice trip.

Enter #37 Kawishiwi Lake. Go through a burn area for your first 3-4 hours which is sobering and interesting. Proceed up to Malberg for night one, many great sites.

From there head over to River lake...fish your way down this one, very good walleye fishing. Make your way to Fishdance for the "haunted" pictographs, or over to Alice, or both. You could take the river/creek route from there(depending on water levels) or the three portage route over to Insula, a legendary BWCA lake. Night two.

From Insula head up to Kiana, Thomas and Fraser. Sagus east of Fraser is known to be a pretty good walleye lake, might be a good spot to camp. From there head east through the small lakes to get to a decision point: head south to Boulder, Adams and Beaver or continue on east to Elton and Makwa and make your way back towards Malberg this way. Night 4 on Boulder, Adams or Beaver would likely give you solitude in September. This whole area is known to be some of the most remote areas of the BWCA. Head back to Malberg and retrace your paddle strokes out to Kawishiwi. Malberg is a very nice lake with decent fishing , good for a night too depending on plans. Would leave a 6 or so hour paddle out...or Night 4 could be a layover night anywhere along the route. Making your way to Polly for your last night would allow you to enjoy this beautiful lake with a relatively easy exit on your last day.

This would be a dream trip for me but at my age it would have to be a 9 or 10 night trip with a few layovers. The scenery would be great, plenty of good fishing including lake trout opportunities along the way, and some pretty remote country on the northern part of the trip. Obviously it could be tailored to your liking and allows options for shortening or lengthening the route.

This route was totally off the top of my head...I have been to at least half of the route if not more. Since you weren't getting a lot of responses I thought I would throw it out there. It might not be the best route you could take but it would be a dandy.

I don’t want to hijack this thread but was just curious about how knife lake is in the wind. I came really close to doing the trip you suggested but was afraid of taking a new paddler to a big lake.

moray: "I don’t want to hijack this thread but was just curious about how knife lake is in the wind. I came really close to doing the trip you suggested but was afraid of taking a new paddler to a big lake."

In early June, it was an ESE wind on the day we went in, so almost a straight headwind. Waves were not terrible as the wind reduced a bit from where it was in the morning, around 10mph. We cut right through them; we didn't have much concern for tipping. It just wore us out early. If it had been a direct S wind, we could have stayed close to shore and not had much to worry about with regard to waves. Most of our wind that trip was roughly out of the south. The second day when we hit Kekekabic, the wind was roaring with up to 25mph gusts, and the waves were... not confidence-inspiring. We pushed out into the lake at a 45 degree angle to the waves, white knuckling it, and turned 90 degrees back towards the first campsite to the west. We had to do this twice to get the right amount of distance west (so we wouldn't be broadside to the waves by getting to shore too early and trying to paddle directly west) but we made it. The turns were the most stressful parts. That is a lake I have a healthy respect for.

In mid September, I believe it was mostly an east wind as well, so a headwind again, but very mild, maybe 5mph. On the way out of Knife we had a headwind out of the SW I believe, but it wasn't too bad on Knife. Once we hit Birch we got the full brunt of the wind, but it was a direct headwind of maybe 15mph. We powered right through it without any problems from waves.

In all of these situations, if the wind had been of the same strength, but from any other direction, it might have caused us problems with stability. You can stay really close to shore all the way up Knife and there are a bunch of campsites along the way, so you can stop at almost any time until you get to SAK, then they're more spread out and you have to decide to go on the north side to check big island campsites, or to push straight east into the mouth of SAK where you won't have many options until you get into SAK proper.

If you wanted to bring beginners to big water, spring/early summer when it's windy probably isn't the best time, but you can totally do it as long as you watch the weather with a weather radio (so you know to leave a campsite a day early to get closer to exit or whatever if you'll have to cross big water) and as long as everyone knows to have loose hips and let waves flow under you, and to never be broadside to waves.

With some basic tips and a serious attitude any time there is strong winds, I don't think you have anything to worry about on Knife. Kek, Ima, Brule, Pine, LLC, Snowbank, Seagull, Saganaga, different story. They're not long and skinny like Knife, they're just massive open bodies of water.

Thanks Flynn! Isn’t it funny that no matter what direction your paddling in it always seems you have to go into the wind!

moray: "Thanks Flynn! Isn’t it funny that no matter what direction your paddling in it always seems you have to go into the wind!"

It sure seemed that way!