Where's your favorite place to fish in Quetico or the Boundary Waters? I don't want to know the exact lake or the exact location, just a general description of the place.

For walleye it is a location about 150 feet from an island campsite in the spring time. It is about 15 feet deep, has a muddy bottom with emerging weed growth. This place hardly ever disappoints. Once you find the location, all you need to do is drop the jig over the side of the canoe and let it go to the bottom, reel up a foot and wait for the tick at the end of your line and reel in the lunch.

For pike it is in back of a cove. Sandy, shallow with reed growth and holds bait fish. In the spring this cove will draw in some big jacks to the back section. The rest of the cove can be great for smallmouth.

For smallmouth it is where a creek coming out of a small lake dumps into a much larger lake. The warming water coming out of the shallow, small lake pouring into a deep, colder, large lake really draws the smallmouth into this area like a magnet in the spring time.

For lake trout it is a deep stretch of rocky shoreline in a deep, colder bay. I don't fish lake trout too often, but trolling down this stretch can produce a decent laker sometimes.

BWCA by an island near a small weedy channel for Pike. Only about 7-10 feet deep in this area.

I like a narrowing of the lake, which creates current, with two islands. You can cast to shorelines or just dunk a leech TGO-style and catch walleyes.

WCPP....Lake Trout.....A deep channel between shore and an underwater rocky reef that comes up to 12 ft. Troll thru there with crank baits or spinners or drift thru with sonars or little georges and nail 6 to 8lb trout

Lake Trout- if within 2-3 weeks of ice , deadbait from camp.
Pike- same, many off camp with deadbait too , but really anywhere , where there is fish in general , long points also.
Walleyes- moving water-rock piles that break surface or close to, that have some dropping off depth along with island/point edges.
smallies- the down timber gets so over looked and being in a canoe your in perfect stealth mode to catch them , and large boulder type rock piles that drop off too.

Walleye, a large reef surrounded by extremely deep water. Slip bobber set at 20 feet . Lakers, trolling a deep trough on a large Quetico Lake. Always a couple large Walleye mixed with the Lakers . Northerns, never target them , but have caught some monsters fishing for Walleye. Sorry Mike , but I never target smallmouth up north. But I love to fish for them in the small midwestern streams and creeks we have here in Illinois.

For LT I like to find 100' or deeper areas with 2 or 3 sides of steep banks. These spots are usually near mid lake islands. The LT can pin the Cisco against the steep shoreline breaks. Easy to spot on sonar and 40' seams to be the magic depth all season. The really big ones can get lazy and stay on bottom around the edges in 70-80'.
For walleye I just pitch jigs in current.

Not sure people understand exactly what I was asking for in the OP. Looking for a description of a "REAL" location in the BW or Quetico, not a general description of a type of a location. So what is a "REAL" description of your favorite place or places to fish. For example.....One of my favorite "real" places is right above a waterfall where there is a decent current before it flows over the falls. A great place to find big smallmouth and some decent walleye from time to time.

Maybe you have a reef 1/2 mile from camp, or an old tree down in the lake that has been there for years, a mid lake point that never disappoints, a weedy cove, a sandy cove, a cove full of lily pads, a certain camp site with great structure, what's that structure like?

Just like hearing about real descriptions of real places that people love to fish up there.

I described a real place, Mike, but it is north of Quetico. Another real place that's close to one I described above is below a waterfall that's at the end of a gorge and up against a cliff. The gorge acts like a megaphone and all this mist comes out of the gorge that keeps the cliff wall wet and green. It's a dramatic place to fish! Below the waterfall, it's shallow in the middle, so you have to fish against the cliff over a shallow trough that's only about six feet wide, but lawdy does it hold fish, walleyes averaging about two feet and bass up to 19 inches. I TGO that trough, but on the other side, I let a slip bobber run through the current and down it goes.

I described a real place too, but it's in the WCPP. mostly cookie cutter 6lb LT

On a large lake in the Q, in the middle of an area running about 50' deep, we were heading toward an island to give it a try when the depth finder suddenly showed14'. Paddling around it, we determined that it was an area only about 20' square falling off on all sides.

We anchored on a peak in the middle of the large lake and proceeded to catch 18' - 22" smallies like there was no tomorrow! At least 40 with the occasional large pike thrown in for fun.

My favorite spot is a long narrow bay. The bay itself is filled with Bass in the weeds, and the end of the bay where it enters the main lake is always good for a few Northerns. I also like that the bay is calm 99% of the time so it is always a good spot on a windy day if needed. This bay always has a beaver dam in it which is a clear target for me. Beaver dam is a sure sign of life.

It's about a 180 rod stretch of gently moving water connecting two lakes...small protected water so you're not getting blown around, cool little islands and rock outcroppings around (some you could even land at and shore fish from), and of course FISH!

i'll be more specific , off my favorite campsite in the SAK , a person can outfish people in a canoe (somedays) ;) and as i've got older i love chill'n at camp & catching fish :)

Off the bank,in partial shade,below a riffle/rapids. There are many places that produce fish at least as well or better.......but it is still my favorite. ;) oth

Narrows between two big lakes on the border.

QueticoMike: "Not sure people understand exactly what I was asking for in the OP. Looking for a description of a "REAL" location in the BW or Quetico, not a general description of a type of a location. So what is a "REAL" description of your favorite place or places to fish. For example.....One of my favorite "real" places is right above a waterfall where there is a decent current before it flows over the falls. A great place to find big smallmouth and some decent walleye from time to time.


Maybe you have a reef 1/2 mile from camp, or an old tree down in the lake that has been there for years, a mid lake point that never disappoints, a weedy cove, a sandy cove, a cove full of lily pads, a certain camp site with great structure, what's that structure like?


Just like hearing about real descriptions of real places that people love to fish up there."

Mine was a real place too :)

moosedoggie: "On a large lake in the Q, in the middle of an area running about 50' deep, we were heading toward an island to give it a try when the depth finder suddenly showed14'. Paddling around it, we determined that it was an area only about 20' square falling off on all sides.


We anchored on a peak in the middle of the large lake and proceeded to catch 18' - 22" smallies like there was no tomorrow! At least 40 with the occasional large pike thrown in for fun."

Would love to see pictures of those 22 inch smallmouth if you wouldn't mind sharing! Thanks!

AmarilloJim: " "

Thousand words there. Made me smile.

Just East of a medium size island with campsite on it, and depth about 10-20 feet with 80-90 foot depth surrounding, except where island is... Tons of Walleyes, but not too big, just big enough for dinner! Drop THIS jig and bump bottom for a few seconds...

mapsguy1955: "Just East of a medium size island with campsite on it, and depth about 10-20 feet with 80-90 foot depth surrounding, except where island is... Tons of Walleyes, but not too big, just big enough for dinner! Drop THIS jig and bump bottom for a few seconds... "

Interesting jig, what's it called?

Mister Twister® G-Grub®... That spot is in Quetico!

Border lake with a slight flow around an island. Depth drops from about 8’ to 30’ very quickly, and the twilight ‘eye bite had us giggling like kids catching bluegills.