Good morning!

My group will be heading to Knife Lake this year, entering on Sunday 5/26 via tow from Latourells outfitters. This trip is mainly aimed at fishing (lakers being the goal, but would love to hit a grand slam this year!). I am wondering what arm would be suggested for base camping? I was thinking of setting up camp on the north arm and taking the small portage to get into South Arm to avoid some of the wind I know Knife i known for. Our group is only 3 this year, so we are taking a 3 seater which I think will be beneficial for this type of trip. What are others thoughts on Knife? I am not opposed to camping on a smaller lakes just off Knife as well if that is suggested.

Thank you!

I did a trip to Knife about 10 years ago, we got the tow up Moose like you are doing and base camped on the big island in the south arm of Knife. I've only be there once but other in my group have been back 3 other times to the same camp site because the fishing was so good. We were in the 1st week of June and did great on smallies and pike, just ok on walleyes and caught a few lakers even though we were not really targeting them. We took a day trip into Kekekabic lake and caught over 40 lakers! We never made it to the north arm so I cant tell you much about that but the fishing in the south arm was great. There is a bay on the south shore directly south of the big island that we fished a lot, one in our group got a grand slam in that bay in about an hour and a half. Also great fishing at Eddy falls just to the west of that bay. I'd highly recommend a day trip into Kekekabic for lakers.

Knife is such an awesome lake. The north arm is great, as is the south arm. I have read more reports of bears in the south arm, not sure I read of any in the north arm actually. But during my one night on the south arm island, I didn't see or hear any. There are some nice campsites in the south arm from what it looks like, and it is a very scenic area. I personally like the north arm more but I think it was circumstantial (right day, right mood) - cloudy with some variation in the clouds, cool with almost no wind, no bugs, loons out fishing and playing, just a day paddling from the north arm all the way to the west side of Knife, uninterrupted. I enjoyed it very much.

The area from the portage from the north arm to the south arm is incredibly beautiful and you should definitely explore around there, where it pinches down into some narrows. I wish I had fished that area, it looked super fishy. One of the guys at W&H told us he caught a monster pike in the bay by the portage to Amoeber and I believe it. Man I miss that area.

A 3 seater (like MN III) worked well for my June trip, but it is an aggressively styled canoe and took some concentration during windy periods to maintain stability, though my friends and I were confident, just cautious. Kek was the worst with 20mph winds and whitecaps from the SE which made our trek to the campsite just west of the portage from Pickle a bit of a pickle. But Kek is a great lake and amazingly beautiful from that campsite, which has a climb up to an excellent lookout spot where you see over the whole lake.

Anywhere you end up staying in that area will likely be fantastic. Enjoy!!

Back in 2012 we base camped on Ogish and made a day trip to Kek, it is indeed a beautiful lake! We attempted to fish for lakers, but our fishing window was between 1 pm and 3 pm so we didn't have any luck. We are only going to be in for 5 days, and I feel like there is so much to see on Knife that I don't know if we will make it down to Kek. I definitely want to take a day trip to Eddy/Eddy falls area to fish for pike and check out the scenery. We also want to try and make it to the overlook on the big island on the north arm, and of course check out Dorothy's rock and cabin site. Knife just has so many options for day trips! I think trying to camp as central to the options as possible probably means we should stay on the south arm and just portage to the north arm when we want to. I believe I have read some people saying the laker fishing is better on the north arm, but I guess there is only one way to find out!

Staying in the south arm will maximize your travel day opportunities. If you can convince your group to head up to Cherry Lake for a day, do it. It's a beautiful area, you won't regret it.

In my trip report here you can see some pictures of the NAK/SAK and Cherry area. The second picture on Part 4 is around the NAK/SAK portage, the narrows I mentioned. Beautiful area. I felt truly surrounded by the wilderness.

https://bwca.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=trip.report_view&sel_trp_id=5322

We actually spent part of a day last year on Cherry (Stayed on Gijikiki and pushed through LOTC/ Cherry area to stay on Ester before heading out). I will definitely be making a trip back to Cherry at some point. What a beautiful area!

SAK is a better choice. More variability in fishing, day trip options, campsites, and more scenic in my opinion. The North arm is more desolate/burned. You can portage into NAK if you want to fish that area.

2nd the thoughts on SAK. Also probably more walleye water than NAK. It's a common spot but give Eddy Falls inflow a shot....