I am planning on heading up for my first time possibly in July. It will be me and 1 other person for 4-5 days. Neither of us have been up before. We both are very avid anglers with a good amount of paddling experience. We plan on doing a lot of fishing. I have seen a lot of recommendations on Mudro but Fourtown seems to be a very popular spot and can be crowded. Possibly looking to go somewhere with less people. Should we go to Mudro and head to one of the smaller lakes like boot, fairy, gun, etc. to try and get away more? Any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

A circle route from Mudro to Horse, Lower Basswood Falls, up Crooked and then down via Boot, Fairy, etc is a nice run. Or the reverse. You could do it in one or two nights if you did not fish so you would ample time to fish a lot.
Your biggest issue is picking a date and securing a permit. And, whatever you do get an early jump on your entry day so you can find a campsite of your liking without worry.

Moose river north to LLC is a nice trip. You could even loop back through oyster. I did the loop a few years ago and would do it again.

July is going to be crowded around fourtown. You might look at camping on Insula. It has 43 campsites I believe and lots of bays and islands. It takes 5-7 hours to get there from a Lake One Entry. The numbered lakes will probably be all full so you want to just travel lean and fast through those on Day one then find a good site for 3 days of fishing on Insula. Then go all the way out for your last day. Also, I would try my best to add a couple of days to this trip. Insula is a great lake and some good day trip options up Alice way and on the Kawishiwi River. If you did manage to get a 7 day trip you might consider doing the loop through Alice, Thomas, Ima and end at Snowbank. When I did this I shuttled a car over to the Snowbank Entry parking lot. It's a few minutes from the Lake One Entry lot.

You can get a copy of an older Boundary Waters Journal magazine where they detail and rate all the campsites on Insula. If you're the rock jumping kind of person stop at "The Rock" for some fun. It's a shear drop into 20' plus of water.

This is me at 8:30 in the morning in 2009. Good way to wake up! My 17 year old son got a kick out of it. And yes, he was next.

Cliff Jump

Brett,
If you can get a permit, nothing at all wrong with your original idea of going in through Mudro. Great area, popular but for a reason. Scenic lakes, mostly moderate portaging, nice campsites. I would go past Fourtown to Boot, Fairy or Gun if you can get there on the first day though. Fourtown would be a good place to stay on your last night to make for an easy exit.

Boot is a sleeper lake for big walleyes. Fairy is a really cool little lake with decent fishing. Two campsites but I bet they are not both taken very often. Good chance of having a lake to yourselves. Gun is beautiful, very clear water. There is a peninsula site on Gull Lake that is a premo site for comfort and fishing. Head up to Beartrap for the 5 star site if you can get it and enjoy good walleye fishing and another lake to yourselves. If not Thunder has extremely high walleye numbers in the DNR census and a couple decent sites too.

Retrace to Gun and head over to Moosecamp for good sites and fishing. Take the Moosecamp River down to Fourtown for a short adventure. Find a site for your last night.

This would be a great introductory trip. Start paddling early in the day and look for a campsite by early afternoon - that is one of the few things that can put a damper on a trip is having to travel much further or backtrack a long ways for an open site - and that is wherever you go. Enjoy.

+1 on lindylair's post. I did that route last fall. Beautiful area. Didn't fish, though. You'd have plenty of time to fish paddling that loop.

Brett,

Four or five days is not very long to get very deep into the BW if you are looking for some solitude and doing a lot of good fishing.

I suggest you look at Big Moose Lake via the Moose River South entry #8. Big Moose Lake is kind of a dead end lake and most people that go there it is the destination. There are several portages out of BM but they are very long so most people paddle in an stay put for a few days. There are 5 sites and only 1 permit per day which is open some of the time. Suggest you snag one now if you are serious about going to BM.

Big Moose is a great fishing lake with a good population of walleye and Smallmouth. It use to have some big pike but I think those days are done because because of over harvest. We use live bait most of the time. Leaches on a slip bobber. The lake is kind of shallow without much structure however there is a very nice reef out in the middle of the lake if you know how to find it. We also fish around the islands with success.

Let me know if you want more information on Big Moose lake.

UPBoy

In 16 and out 19 or vice versa would do; but probably like fourtown mudro as far as solitude. Big moose sounded good for a better shot at solitude and a day to "learn the lake". Do a search here for areas you check out. Good luck.

You said July, when in July? If you can, I'd advise trying to go in around July 2nd. Generally right before and right after the 4th of July is a much slower time. I think many people want to be in town for the parade, fireworks and family barbecues.

The smallmouth fishing should be great, mostly topwater or a bobber with a leech hanging off a hook.

Going up towards Gull, Gun or Moosecamp will get you to an area with less people but not so far out you can't day trip out in different directions to explore and fish other spots.

I just checked and there are still 4 permits for Mudro for starting on July 2nd and a few for July 3 and beyond for the Mudro Restricted permit (camp anywhere you want except no camping on Horse Lake).