BWCA Lady Chain fishing advice please Boundary Waters Fishing Forum
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BigurdBolson
member (7)member
  
04/30/2019 07:43AM   (Thread Older Than 3 Years)
Hey all, this is my first time posting. First of all I love this website and have been lurking for years, everyone is so helpful and genuine. Secondly, I've been to the quetico a few times and loved it so now I'm trying to take my buddies up with me, but wanted to do something a little less immersive than quetico for first timers. So I decided to go in through Sawbill, alton, beth, grace, and base camp phoebe. Has anyone had experience fishing these lakes and could let me know what to expect? I know it can be taboo talking about fishing spots, but general advice is helpful too. We are okay fisherman, but young, naive, and inexperienced. We also practice catch and release because we enjoy catching fish more than eating them :) also if anyone wants to share anything else about these lakes I'm all ears, to be honest I'm just really excited about this trip and humbly come to you all for advice! Also willing to exchange information with people on fishing spots in Quetico :)
 
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fishnfreak
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04/30/2019 06:03PM  
I've fished those lakes a few times. My take is that it can be feast or famine in there.

Grace was really good once for smallies and walleye and a dead sea two other times.

Phoebe has been pretty good every time. Never got a big walleye out of there but 15-20 inches is pretty common size. Smallies have ranged around the 3lb mark in there. Did get a really big northern out of Phoebe though.

Alton has been windy as hell every time I've gone in there so fishing was a challenge. My personal take on Alton is that it may fish better at night for walleye. Water is deep and clear.

Don't sleep on Knight or Hazel though. You might be surprised!

Sawbill, have fished this lake a dozen times or so. Sometimes really good and sometimes you would swear that its fishless.

Phoebe is one of my favorite BWCA lakes, not for the fishing so much but because it's a really pretty lake.

It's a good route IMO, you will catch fish.

 
BigurdBolson
member (7)member
  
05/01/2019 07:23AM  
Thanks Fishnfreak! Really appreciate the advice
 
05/01/2019 12:18PM  
On Phoebe there is an island with a campsite that is about in the middle (north and south) of the lake on the west side, on the east side of that island there is the little sheltered lagoon. On the outside of that lagoon facing towards the main part of the lake there is a rocky drop off that we caught some walleye on. It was a windy day and we were unable to get out on the main part of the lake to fish so we were fishing from shore and caught a fair number of fish by bouncing a jig with a gulp plastic bait on the rocks.

We wished the wind had been a little less brutal so we could have fished a bit deeper on that drop off. I think we would have had much better luck then, but even so we did pretty well.
 
salukiguy
distinguished member(597)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
05/01/2019 12:20PM  
Grace Lake was good for Smallmouth bass when I was there in September but we couldn't find a pattern. It was hit and miss all over the lake. Seems like the entire lake has a rocky bottom and is around 15 feet deep. Night crawlers worked well. After I ran out of night crawlers I used an orange rapala and they like that color better than others.
 
05/01/2019 07:28PM  
Two years ago my then 13-year-old son and I did the lady chain route from Kawishawa Lake back to alto over five days. We spent two days on Phoebe and we did well on the numbers of smallmouth walleye and pike it was great but nothing that was really big. We stayed on an island on the west side of the lake about two thirds of the way up. It was the best part of our trip enjoy.
 
BigurdBolson
member (7)member
  
05/02/2019 01:13PM  
Thanks a1T20, I'll give that spot a try!
 
BigurdBolson
member (7)member
  
05/02/2019 01:14PM  
I've heard some great stuff about Grace for smallies, looking forward to seeing if it lives up to the hype
 
BigurdBolson
member (7)member
  
05/02/2019 01:15PM  
I'm glad theres good numbers of fish in these lakes, should be fun!
 
treehorn
distinguished member(715)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
05/02/2019 02:38PM  
I second (third, fouth?) the thoughts about Grace. We got a bunch of smallies there last July. Didn't find much size, but it was still fun.

We were fishing mostly the northern part of the lake...not far from the campsite that is up there, there is a creek coming into the lake (the one that leads to magic lake)...we were having luck around there, and north of there where there is a rocky/mossy outcropping that looks like it could be a campsite.

Not fishing related...but the portages and river paddling between Grace and Phoebe was really cool. We found this spot of rapids and hung around for a happy hour and some lunch - it was damn near magical!

 
BigurdBolson
member (7)member
  
05/06/2019 01:25PM  
Thanks treehorn I appreciate the advice, and that looks like a great spot to stop!
 
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