Who has a story about a fish fight up in the Boundary Waters or Quetico? What is your most memorable or best fish fight from the canoe or shoreline? Please share your story.

My biggest Quetico angling fight, where do I begin, which one provided the biggest fight? This is truly a hard question for me, since I've had so many angling thrills throughout the years in the Quetico. Do I write about the 45 inch northern pike I caught? What about some of the five or six pound plus smallmouth bass I have caught? There was the walleye of the '03 trip that was caught on the first day which measured out at 32 inches. Or maybe I should tell the story of my last cast of the trip catch of a 41 inch northern pike while I was in a solo canoe and not close to shore? Paddled to shore one handed to land that fish, while I fought the pike with my other hand.

All of those catches were a big thrill to me, but I think I'll go with the most adventurous catch. It happened on a June trip back in 2001, on a small lake near Kawnipi in the Quetico. I'm a big smallmouth bass fisherman and this day just wasn't my day. My partner, Tom Ray, was just schooling me that day. Things were going so well he didn't even have to move his lure to catch fish. He would simply cast out a pop-r and let it sit for less than minute and the smallmouth would crush the lure. Don't get me wrong, I still caught fish, but it seemed like most of the good ones got away.

It was towards the end of the day and we were fishing from shore at the north end outlet of the lake. What used to be a stream maybe five feet wide was now a little river with a width of 20 feet. In years past the other side of the creek was littered with large rocks, now they are a foot under water. The shore line we were on was a smooth, gentle sloping slab of granite. You could only walk down along side the creek so far before the slope increased to a point where it would not be safe to stand. Since the water had never been this high before, I had never fished the creek. I was using a bull frog colored Lucky 13 and casting it down stream in hopes of a smallmouth in the current. The first pass through a big fish took a swipe at it, but I had no idea of the species. So I made another cast to the same area with similar results, except this time I could tell it was a northern pike. I was guessing around 7 or 8 pounds. I typically wouldn't try to hook a pike that size because of what they do to the lures.

My fishing day hadn't been going well so I decided to pursue this fish. The next cast I make connects with a good hook up. Right away the drag starts to sing and line begins to peel off the spool. It's running me down stream and there's nothing I can do about it. Not only am I fighting a big fish, but I’m also fighting some strong current. I knew then this fish is much larger than my first estimation. My line began to head across the river which used to be all rocks and I saw a tail come out of the shallow water. At the time it was the biggest tail I had ever seen on a fish. My heart started to race. I began to worry about the fish breaking me off in the rocks. The fish once again made a move further down stream and I couldn't stop it. The spool of line on my reel began to look sparse. I had to do something before I was spooled. I decided to start using my thumb for a drag system and began walking back up along the creek, pulling the fish back up stream. Then I would run back down stream and reel up as much line as possible. I was in the "tug of war” mode. This scenario repeated itself several times as we both struggled. All at once my line became slack and I thought the fish was gone, but in the next instance it was right back on again. I thought it had come loose and then I snagged the monster again somehow, I was not sure what happened? Tom said this battle went on for a good 10 to 15 minutes, it seemed a lot longer to me. I finally tired the fish and drug it up the rest of the creek to the shoreline, where Tom was able to land the fish. The fish was hooked on the outside of the head near the cheek. I thought maybe this is where I hooked the fish after it had become loose.

The northern pike measured out at 41 inches and we were guessing upper teens to 20 pounds. I was shaking and exhausted after the battle. The fish was exhausted as well. Tom snapped a couple of pictures of me and my embattled opponent to document the event. The next step was to get her back in the water for revival. I held the pike by her tail and began a pushing and pulling motion to force some water in the gills. This process went on until she was able to swim away under her own power. A below average fishing day in the Quetico turned around with one cast. After that catch and release I wasn't so bothered by the number of smallmouth I had caught that day.

I tend to leave big pike in the water, for their sake and mine. However, whereas I remember 40" fish pike glowering at me beside the canoe, I can't share those images with anyone, so on one trip, we decided to use an abandoned, leaky boat to land a nice pike, after which we'd use our canoe. Luckily, for that boat really leaked, we landed a nice pike on the first evening.

We don't target them. We catch them while targeting smallmouth, so it hit an F13 Rapala with such force that the fish came completely out of the water and beached herself on a rock, where she flopped a few times. Then she zoomed past our boat.

We'd brought a big net to finally land a nice pike, but she still didn't easily fit into it. See how happy I am to finally have a nice pike pic?

It was raining that evening, making for a dark pic. I also caught half a dozen 19" and 20" bass that evening, so it was fun, albeit wet fishing.

Sorry this wasn't a Quetico story, but it was close to Quetico, just a few lakes beyond the park.

That's pretty easy for me (I'll give one for a smallmouth, one for a walleye).

My first fishing trip to BWCA targeted smallmouth. I'm from Kansas, and a big smallmouth (well, any smallmouth!!) was only the stuff of dreams.

My very first fish of that trip came in the first 15 minutes. I flipped an unweighted nightcrawler behind a boulder just off of a little island. I saw my line twitch, my line headed out, I set the hook, and instantly a smallmouth which proved to be 19 inches exploded in a spectacular leap. It jumped 5 more times. Wow! Talk about an introduction to smallmouth fishing in the Boundary Waters. They say you always remember your first [smallmouth, that is].

The walleye was memorable as being my personal best two years ago. For whatever reason, despite having caught many, many, walleye over the years, my personal best was only about 6 lbs. My friends would catch the real lunkers, I'd generally top out in the 3-4 lb range.

We were fishing a large BWCA lake in early August, tipping jigs with leeches and pieces of crawlers, fished straight down in 18-25 feet of water. We'd been clobbering them for days, including numbers in the 23-26 inch range. To that point, my best walleye fishing ever.

I felt a small tap, set the hook, and for about two seconds thought 'snag'....and then the snag started to move and didn't stop until it had taken out quite a bit of line. I told my partner rather quietly, "wait, just a second. This is serious". It just hung down...and then took more line. While 'maybe a big northern' was in the back of my mind, I thought it more likely that this was finally my 'big walleye' which had always eluded me. It took several more sequences of run/stop before I finally started regaining line (8 lb test), and the fight lasted for quite a while. 29 3/4 inches.

Quite the thrill when the 'snag' started to move.

fishing with a medium lt , 7' ugly stick , off shore , a lot of runs and very hard to steer/control CPR. she gave such an awesome fight she sat there (2nd pic) for 30 minutes , upright checked on her many times, then boom she was gone :) :)

Nice fish, shock!

My best fight was on Poohbah Lake in Quetico. I rarely target Northerns, but seem to hook many when I’m chasing Walleye. I was slow trolling a 1/2 jig tipped with a 3” white twister around a small rock pile about 50 feet from a small island in about 12 feet of water. As soon as I hooked the fish it started peeling line off. I new instantly it was a BIG NORTHERN! I was in the stern, I told my buddy in the bow to reel up and start paddling toward the fish, I new I wasn’t going to turn this fish before he peeled off all my line. To make a long story short, my buddy did a great job of chasing and positioning the canoe that gave me a great chance of landing the fish. After a 20 minute fight the fish finally was within my reach. I lifted the big girl out of the water to get a quick picture. The fish was laying at my feet In the canoe. I turned around to get my camera , at the same time I was turning around the fish made a violent flop and was back in the lake. All my buddy and I could do was just bust out laughing. The Northern was in the 50 inch range, and we guessed between 25 to 30 pounds.

Walllee, you are a better man than I am! The very thought of a lively 25 lb northern loose in the bottom of my canoe gets me seriously puckered, if you know what I mean!

barehook: "You are a better man than I am! The very thought of a lively 25 lb northern loose in the bottom of my canoe gets me seriously puckered, if you know what I mean!"

Yes I do! I hardly never bring any fish into the canoe, but I so wanted a picture of it. It wasn’t really lying in the bottom , it’s tail was sticking over one gunwall, it’s head was sticking out over the other, it’s belly was the only part of her that was on the floor.

Kahshapiwi, 4th of July week, 2005. We were out for a day paddle, and I was trolling my trusty rainbow trout reef runner. My reef runner was getting no love, so I curved us around the back side of an island to pause and change lures. As I was reeling in, I had a really solid thunk. Fish on!

After several minutes, my wife started getting impatient and was drumming her fingers on the gunwale, wanting me to get a move on it. I said it was a big trout, might be awhile yet. I worked it closer, then it blew out its bubbles and made another long run. Eventually I got it close enough that we could see it, and my wife blurts out, "Oh, man, that's a big freaking fish!" Fortunately our big dog stayed calm in the middle of the boat. After a few more runs, I got the fish alongside the boat and grabbed it with the Boga. Just under 14 pounds - not my biggest, but maybe my longest LT.

After releasing the fish, I decided I could keep using my reef runner after all! Not long later, I missed another fish while we were over 160 FOW.

That trout has a huge head on it, rpike!

Not a great story but will never forget my buddy's 32" Pike on Lac La Croix because it pulled the canoe with it. To this day that is the only fish I have ever witnessed that truly pulled the canoe with it. Was awesome to witness.

barehook: "Walllee, you are a better man than I am! The very thought of a lively 25 lb northern loose in the bottom of my canoe gets me seriously puckered, if you know what I mean!"

Brings back memories. Many moons ago on Basswood I hooked in to one of the biggest pike I've ever caught. While trying to get my #9 shad rap out its mouth it started dancing in the bottom of the boat and low and behold the back hooks of the shad rap was caught in the flap of my zipper. My partner was laughing so hard he was crying. Haven't had one in the boat since.

Have told this story before but it is good....several years ago was fishing on a small lake near Robinson in Quetico that was loaded with 18-20 inch smallies. After catching a dozen or so on a spinnerbait, I casted to shore and hooked into a brute. He decided to dive straight down to the bottom. After a few seconds of holding the rod, the next thing I see is the fish bursting into the air, shaking mightily, then plopping back into the water just splashing around on the surface.
He's about 30 feet from the canoe, and next thing I know he makes a beeline on the surface, splashing up a storm and rams into the side of my solo canoe. Then he dives and next thing I see is another launch into the air and he lands right between my feet in the canoe. Crazy fish and I laughed so darn hard I almost flipped the canoe.....