I hear about these real fishing trips. A group of guys goes out and really focuses on fishing. They talk of "50 fish days" and "500 fish weeks". I've been to the BW 17 times (#18 is coming in a few days). I don't think I have caught 500 fish total in all those trips.

What am I doing wrong?

What does such a trip look like?

I suspect that I'm mostly fishing the wrong time of day. I get up about 8-9, eat breakfast and drink coffee. I head off for serious fishing around 11. I fish pretty hard until 4 or 6 at night. I catch some nice fish. I usually get some nice smallies and I often get 2-4 lakers. Then, I settle in to camp for dinner and visiting around the campfire.

How does that schedule contrast with a "real" fishing trip?

what does a 500 fish week look like? For 99% of anglers that would start out with writing a big check to a local fishing guide. And some of those folks are flat-out lying about numbers to puff out their chests on the internet, or to make themselves feel better about the $2500 electronics package they just installed in the boat.

Don't worry about that crap. If you're out there having fun and catching fish that's as real as it gets.

But I'll say that early morning periods (sunrise to 9am) are peak laker times, and any low-light period (especially in the clear waters up there) is going to be better for walleye. They have an evolutionary advantage in their eyesight and they exploit that by feeding during low light. In my opinion 11am-6pm is the opposite of when you want to be fishing. Not saying it'll give you a 50 fish day. I consider 5-10 lakers a really solid day; 1-5 respectable; getting skunked is just part of the game. My 2 cents anyway.

Mad_Angler:
I suspect that I'm mostly fishing the wrong time of day. I get up about 8-9, eat breakfast and drink coffee. I head off for serious fishing around 11. I fish pretty hard until 4 or 6 at night. I catch some nice fish. I usually get some nice smallies and I often get 2-4 lakers. Then, I settle in to camp for dinner and visiting around the campfire.

How does that schedule contrast with a "real" fishing trip? "

What you described is pretty much the exact opposite of a "real" fishing trip. Morning and evening is where it's at for fishing, for the most part.

Time of year , species targeting and tactics can all play a part in numbers. A "real" fishing trip means different things to different people.

Fishing is my #1 priority when I go on any trip. Homework, general fishing knowledge, and time on the water is the key, and I would not consider going without a depth finder. A typical day for me would be up at daylight, a couple cups of coffee, and then on the water by say, 6am. I usually fish till around 9, come in have a quick bite, Pack a lunch bag , then back out by 10 am and fish until at least 3 or 4 pm. Over the last few years I have been having dinner at this time, then back out to fish from 6 till dark. I know people swear that fishing is not usually good during the mid day, and afternoons, but I have slayed the Walleyes countless times on hot, bright sunny days in areas that they shouldn’t be in. Many times it can be fairly shallow water, I’m not fishing 25 or 30 feet, but 10 to 15 feet. It doesn’t happen every time out, but it is not uncommon.the last couple years I have been concentrating on Lakers in the Afternoons.. it’s becoming a addiction! Spend enough hours in the boat,and good things will happen. Sure, I’ve been skunked many times, and sometimes it may take me a couple days to pattern the fish, but usually it pays off. I basecamp most of the time, and the reason is it takes time to figure things out. I’ve read posts here when people say a lake is a bad fishing lake, and they only spent a day, or part of a day fishing it. That is not enough time to throughly pattern the lake, or the fish. I guess my main advice to have a 500 fish week is countless hours in the canoe, and go to Quetico!!LOL....

walllee: "...
I would not consider going without a depth finder.
...
"

I have always taken a depth finder. I think it helps. I definitely like it when trolling for lakers.

But I don't think I'm getting the full benefit from my depth finder. How do you use your depth finder? What are you looking for?

I would like to add that we typically target lakers in the middle of the day and leave the mornings and evenings to walleye fishing.

We have found that lakers are one of the easier species to catch in the middle of the day and don't require a lot of preparation. We can easily just jump in the canoe after lunch and paddle around pulling a deep running crank behind the canoe, take in the scenery, and pick them up when everything else is shut down.

Well you start by getting 15-20 fish per day. After a week or two upon returning home, mentally that starts to naturally feel like it was 25 or 30. You don't keep tallies, so whose to say it wasn't 25 or 30. Another month or two goes by and 25 or 30 is easier to describe as "50" - a nice, round, impressive number.

We're now 4 or 5 months down the road and we're scrolling BWCA.com. A fishing post comes up. You attempt to recount the trip's events, and "50" comes into your mind. You were there for a week, 7 days. That's 350 fish in the week. 350 is an awkward number, so roughly 500 in that week sounds better.

You now have your 500 fish week :)

CityFisher74: "Well you start by getting 15-20 fish per day. After a week or two upon returning home, mentally that starts to naturally feel like it was 25 or 30. You don't keep tallies, so whose to say it wasn't 25 or 30. Another month or two goes by and 25 or 30 is easier to describe as "50" - a nice, round, impressive number.


We're now 4 or 5 months down the road and we're scrolling BWCA.com. A fishing post comes up. You attempt to recount the trip's events, and "50" comes into your mind. You were there for a week, 7 days. That's 350 fish in the week. 350 is an awkward number, so roughly 500 in that week sounds better.


You now have your 500 fish week :)"

LMAO!!

CityFisher74: "Well you start by getting 15-20 fish per day. After a week or two upon returning home, mentally that starts to naturally feel like it was 25 or 30. You don't keep tallies, so whose to say it wasn't 25 or 30. Another month or two goes by and 25 or 30 is easier to describe as "50" - a nice, round, impressive number.


We're now 4 or 5 months down the road and we're scrolling BWCA.com. A fishing post comes up. You attempt to recount the trip's events, and "50" comes into your mind. You were there for a week, 7 days. That's 350 fish in the week. 350 is an awkward number, so roughly 500 in that week sounds better.


You now have your 500 fish week :)"

Yes! This post is everything!

Mad_Angler: "

walllee: "...
I would not consider going without a depth finder.
...
"

I have always taken a depth finder. I think it helps. I definitely like it when trolling for lakers.


But I don't think I'm getting the full benefit from my depth finder. How do you use your depth finder? What are you looking for?"

I’m looking at depth at all times. I’m looking for structure. There are times if I catch a Walleye or two at a certain depth, I keep my eye on on the finder to stay at that exact depth. There are times if you variate even a foot or two off that depth you will not get fish. It amazes me what a little variation in depth can effect success.

Wallee... are you trying to find flats? midlake humps? or?

Let's say you want to target 10' of water. Would you start with a 10' contour on a flat with widely spaced contour lines? Or would you start with a 10' contour on a cliff with tightly spaced contour lines?

What am I doing wrong? If you find a lake you really enjoy and keep going back to it, it becomes much easier to fish. Familiarity helps a ton.. at least for me.

What does such a trip look like? Honestly for me that is too much fishing. I go up for fish sure but a lot of it is also paddling slowly around the lake just looking around, part of it is just relaxing on the shore, part of it is cribbage with no distractions, etc.

How does that schedule contrast with a "real" fishing trip? Honestly I have a hard time catching fish during those times lol so I usually fish between 6am-10am and then again at 5pm to 7/8pm.

Also I see you mention lakers. Those I think are just harder to catch than say pike, bass, and walleyes.

If I’m at a lake I’ve never been before, I will start slow trolling at the first or second break off of islands or mainland shorelines. Usually that’s 10 to 12 feet. I will stay at that depth all the way down the shore, or around the islands. If no fish are present, I’ll move out to maybe 15 feet, and repeat the process. I’ll keep repeating this process if I haven’t found fish until 25 to 30 foot depths. If no fish I move to another area and repeat the process. When traveling to other areas, I’m constantly watching the depth finder looking for any kind of structure . Reefs, humps, etc. sometimes if the wind is right, I’ll just drift fish open water. I have found many reefs this way. In the summer, the reefs are my bread and butter. It doesn’t have to be a big reef to hold fish. Normally if I start catching fish at 15 feet in one area, the fish are at that depth in similiar type areas all over the lake. The depth finder paints a picture of the lake.

I wouldn't presume to label anyone else's trip 'real' or not.

When my fishing buddy and I go, we are intent on fishing long and hard.

Weather permitting (huge variable), we have a lure/bait in the water for at least 10 hours per day. That is in addition to paddling time to get to our fishing sites.

We fish areas we know, in places and at a time of year (deep reefs in August), where we are likely to find significant, quite concentrated schools of fish. We are also fishing areas where we have yet to see anyone else fishing in the same place/way that we are, so the fish seem to be relatively 'naive'. Vertical jigging with crawlers/leeches is the only way we fish the whole week.

I am quite confident that for the last two trips, the two of us have combined to easily average in excess of 100 fish per day. Mainly walleye but with some really nice smallmouth thrown in. Northern are (for us), a nuisance. We never use leaders, so bite-offs and re-rigging can cut into our fishing time.

These numbers don't make our trips more or less real/enjoyable than anyone else's. Actually, it's pretty darn tiring to spend that much time on the water sitting in a canoe. But it works for us. I will say, I thoroughly enjoy reading the journals of those of you who take a more relaxed approach!

A 7-10 day trip with Stu in the Quetico would be my idea of a "real" fishing trip.

However, for the time being I'm perfectly content with a much more laid back approach. It is the highlight of my camping season watching my boys build on their experiences from year to year and continue to catch more and more fish. The nights are so short in June so we usually miss the morning bite. We'll then fish a couple hours before lunch and then on our route as we paddle around for the day. After supper we'll head back out or fish from shore for the evening. At this point in my life that's what a "real" fishing trip looks like.

Mad_Angler: "Wallee... are you trying to find flats? midlake humps? or?


Let's say you want to target 10' of water. Would you start with a 10' contour on a flat with widely spaced contour lines? Or would you start with a 10' contour on a cliff with tightly spaced contour lines?"

The season/time of year is my first start - early summer they theoretically should be closer to shore where big rocky spawning flats are, so I usually avoid mid-lake structure until late June or July.

Having that down, now lets say I know they are in 10ft. I start by finding a nice steep drop off that then flattens out around 10 feet. I don't want to fish a drop off that goes down to 20 feet but fish at 10 feet cuz then im in the middle of the drop off (that wouldn't be a bad sun up/sun down spot though), but rather a drop off that is steep but flattens at 10. I like to fish right where that drop off stops and the flat starts.

If these don't work, then I just look for any rocky drop off structure, the more structure the better (saddle between two islands, drop off near current, drop off with a weed bed nearby, etc.).

Adding in - don't get trapped into a spot where you get 2 or 3 Walleyes in an hour. That isn't bad, but you are not on "the spot". You will be on "the spot" when you get a Walleye nearly as quickly as you can get a jig and leech down. Or if you are drifting over structure that's say 30 yards long, you should be getting 2 or 3 fish with each pass.

CityFisher74: "Well you start by getting 15-20 fish per day. After a week or two upon returning home, mentally that starts to naturally feel like it was 25 or 30. You don't keep tallies, so whose to say it wasn't 25 or 30. Another month or two goes by and 25 or 30 is easier to describe as "50" - a nice, round, impressive number.


We're now 4 or 5 months down the road and we're scrolling BWCA.com. A fishing post comes up. You attempt to recount the trip's events, and "50" comes into your mind. You were there for a week, 7 days. That's 350 fish in the week. 350 is an awkward number, so roughly 500 in that week sounds better.


You now have your 500 fish week :)"

This Mr. 74 is wise in the ways of the liars with lines, both fishing lines and otherwise.

Mad_Angler: "I hear about these real fishing trips. A group of guys goes out and really focuses on fishing. They talk of "50 fish days" and "500 fish weeks". I've been to the BW 17 times (#18 is coming in a few days). I don't think I have caught 500 fish total in all those trips.

What am I doing wrong?

What does such a trip look like?


I suspect that I'm mostly fishing the wrong time of day. I get up about 8-9, eat breakfast and drink coffee. I head off for serious fishing around 11. I fish pretty hard until 4 or 6 at night. I catch some nice fish. I usually get some nice smallies and I often get 2-4 lakers. Then, I settle in to camp for dinner and visiting around the campfire.

How does that schedule contrast with a "real" fishing trip?

"

As others noted, you're fishing the worst times, except for pike, which run hot from around 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. or thereabouts. For me, the magic time is 4 a.m. I fish until 10 a.m. or so and begin again around 6 p.m. However, current can produce fish all day long. I went north with a woman I met on this board and we camped across from a little waterfall, which we named 10-Fish Falls. Anytime of the day, we could paddle over there and catch ten fish, usually seven or eight walleyes and the rest were smallmouth. It's as if only ten fish at a time could fit into its limited feeding slots.

"Wanna go catch ten fish?" we'd ask each other.

The answer was always, "Heck, yeah!"

Respectfully, it sounds like you might want to flip the script, and the times you are in camp, go fishing? And maybe the time you are fishing, hang around camp, eat, have a drink, and take a nap? Mostly works like a champ for us!

An average day in Quetico on X lake is wake up as early as possible, depending on how many tasties you drank around the fire the previous night. A cup of hot chocolate and a granola bar for a quick breakfast. Paddle about 150 feet over to where the walleyes are holding next to the island in the emerging weed mud flats. Catch 4 walleye in 15 minutes, back to the island to clean, cook and eat the fish for brunch. Then back out in the canoe and hit all of the honey holes near moving water and catch as many smallmouth as possible. Accidental pike and walleye are also caught. Take a break to stand up and give your butt a break. Eat a little snack because you ate your lunch so early. Start casting some more from the shore. Then back in the canoe and work the shorelines until you get to the next moving water honey hole. Do this until you get hungry and head back to camp to get in an early dinner around 5 or 6, but who knows what time it really is because you don't have a watch. There are only two times, light and dark. Then after dinner back into the canoe and fish until just after sunset. Don't want to get back to camp too late, want to be able to see everything around camp and get everything set for the evening fire. Then you make some tasties and relax for a couple of hours and then hit the hay. That's how we catch a large number of fish per day and per week.......

I had back to back fishing weeks in Canada last year. The first week at Lac Seul in motor boats, my cousin counted 300 walleyes for three guys. I went the following week on a Wabakimi canoe trip and we caught more than 300. I hated keeping count and won't ever again. Fishing is not a numbers game like golf.

QueticoMike: "An average day in Quetico on X lake is wake up as early as possible, depending on how many tasties you drank around the fire the previous night. A cup of hot chocolate and a granola bar for a quick breakfast. Paddle about 150 feet over to where the walleyes are holding next to the island in the emerging weed mud flats. Catch 4 walleye in 15 minutes, back to the island to clean, cook and eat the fish for brunch. Then back out in the canoe and hit all of the honey holes near moving water and catch as many smallmouth as possible. Accidental pike and walleye are also caught. Take a break to stand up and give your butt a break. Eat a little snack because you ate your lunch so early. Start casting some more from the shore. Then back in the canoe and work the shorelines until you get to the next moving water honey hole. Do this until you get hungry and head back to camp to get in an early dinner around 5 or 6, but who knows what time it really is because you don't have a watch. There are only two times, light and dark. Then after dinner back into the canoe and fish until just after sunset. Don't want to get back to camp too late, want to be able to see everything around camp and get everything set for the evening fire. Then you make some tasties and relax for a couple of hours and then hit the hay. That's how we catch a large number of fish per day and per week....... "

+1; my thoughts exactly.

Think like a fish, act like a fish, be the fish. Zen like.
Just kidding, or am I? You need to learn about the way fish behave. Fish have about three things they do. Sleep, eat, and make more fish. The first two are important to learn. You need to learn when they sleep, and when they feed. You need to learn where they sleep, and where they feed. You need to learn why the fish you just caught was in that area. What’s so special about that area? You need to learn to read the land and the bottom of the lake. You need to learn what fish like to eat.
If you understand where they sleep, and where they feed, you can fish in between that area. They will be traveling back and forth and you want to target that area and the food area. Walleyes like to rest in the deeper water because it’s safer there for them. Bait fish that walleye feed on is in the shallows where it’s safer and they can hide from predators. Everything is out to eat bait fish so they tend to stay in shallower waters. You need to understand that walleyes don’t like sunlight. They will be hiding on a shelf or rock in the shade. If you can find a shallow bay that opens out to a larger, deeper waters fish there. Eventually you will be able to identify the topography underwater that will hold fish.
Every single fish I catch I mark on my fish finder that has a underwater map of the lake. Then you start to see a pattern of fish caught. Ask yourself why were the fish there? We’re they eating, sleeping, or making more fish?

The only reason I trip into the BWCA is for 100+ fish days. There are literally thousands of easily accessible lakes in NE MN that, with the proper approach and knowledge, one can easily catch dozens of fish per day depending on the type of fish you're targeting.

My advice is to learn to be a better fisherman. Mostly its about timing and location. Do your research. Buy quality gear. Work on your technique. Pack in live bait!!!! Put the work in to get to locations where others are unwilling to go. The result is a "fly-in" type experience. There's still serious investment required, but its gear that lasts a lifetime, sweat, sore muscles, and calluses instead of money.

I catch 500-1000 walleyes (just me, not the rest of the group) every year in a single one week long trip. Mostly fishing in complete solitude. Took some time to figure out how to do it, but it wasn't that difficult. We don't fish constantly either, it's the intention of the trip, but we're also on vacation and there to relax as well.

"Think like a fish, act like a fish, be the fish. Zen like."

This has me imaging this scenario. You, SV, are the sensei and Mad_Angler is your pupil.

You hold a Muddler Minnow in your hand and say, "When you can take the fly from my hand, it will be time for you to catch 100 fish in a day."

For those not old enough to remember!

A real BWCA fishing trip for me is about God's creation and friends. It is about hope, and reminiscing previous trips. It is about the hunt, figuring out where the fish are at and why. It is about experiencing something new or seeing something new, or even catching something new.
Numbers of fish don't matter to me. In 30+ trips most have been work to catch catch meals, and more work to catch fish to bring home. I have had a few trips where I literally got tired of catching fish, but that is a rarity.
May 2020 trip was great! Got to spend it with my friends. Saw a moose with 2 calves, first moose sighting in around 10 years. Saw my first snowshoe hares (2) this year a surprise and a blessing. The most memorable for me was my good friend thlipsis29 helping me land my biggest northern. I saw the fish stalking the walleye in our basket, and it took me 30 minutes and 3 rig changes with live bait to get it to bite. Great hunt and catch, great friend to help land it, and all in God's amazing creation. That is a real BWCA fishing trip for me.

thegildedgopher: "what does a 500 fish week look like? For 99% of anglers that would start out with writing a big check to a local fishing guide. And some of those folks are flat-out lying about numbers to puff out their chests on the internet, or to make themselves feel better about the $2500 electronics package they just installed in the boat.


Don't worry about that crap. If you're out there having fun and catching fish that's as real as it gets.


But I'll say that early morning periods (sunrise to 9am) are peak laker times, and any low-light period (especially in the clear waters up there) is going to be better for walleye. They have an evolutionary advantage in their eyesight and they exploit that by feeding during low light. In my opinion 11am-6pm is the opposite of when you want to be fishing. Not saying it'll give you a 50 fish day. I consider 5-10 lakers a really solid day; 1-5 respectable; getting skunked is just part of the game. My 2 cents anyway."

* 500 fish weeks are weeks, where you are out on the water at sunup, and catch your first 30 or so before most are out of a tent.
* 500 fish weeks also mean you are pretty dang spent after the week.
* They also tend to mean you're fishing 10-12 and sometimes longer a day.
* They are NEVER travel trips. Find a destination and spend 30 miles a day fishing.

Oh, and my group has never lied about what is caught or can be caught. We make games of it, and it is a badge of honor to catch or break a catch record.

Believe it or not, we had 2 guys fish 18 hrs without leaving the canoe, and caught over 400 smallies......IN 1 day. I"m not about that, they wanted to see how many they could catch in a day. This was after having the best morning they had ever had and that morning extending into mid day. By 2pm they had nearly 200 fish and wanted to continue.

I have not been in a few years, having moved on to other stuff, but the last few years I was there, it was about the Grand Slam, and the super Grand Slam.

The Grand Slam is smallie, laker, walleye, and northern in a trip.
Super Grand Slam is smallie, largemouth, laker, walleye and northern in a trip.

Once guys regularly were catching that, we ended up moving to Grand Slam or Super Grand Slam on the same lake.......After that, it became Grand Slam or Super Grand Slam on the same lake on the same day.

And yea, there was an even after that, which became the Grand Slam or Super Grand Slam on the Same lake on the Same Day.....using 1 bait.

ONLY 1 person has ever done that in my group........GadgetMan.

Yea, fishin up there is crazy.

:)

First to Quetico and 2nd, always round up! For instance a decent smallmouth is at least 1 lb. So if you catch a 2 lb. fish it counts as 2 fish, a 1.1 lb. fish counts as 2 fish, 2 lb. fish counts as 2 fish, but a 2.1 lb. fish counts as 3 fish and so on. If you want more fish drop the weight to 1/2 lb.

Seriously:
Day 1: Paddle like hell to get to your lake, eat supper fish until the mosquitoes come out. Have everything ready to fish the next day before going to bed.
Day 2: Up at dawn load the boats and get on the water (about 5:30). Fish for walleye until breakfast, about 8:00, clean up breakfast then grab lunch for the day and head out to fish or smallies, northern, or lake troiut depending on the lake. Be back at 4:00 to prepare supper. Clean up and head out until the mosquitoes come out.
Day 3: repeat day 2.

I think a lot of what I had to say has been covered.

As I've gotten older, or as my back and knees begin to hurt more from a long day in the canoe I've started to focus my days more than in the past.

I now plan my days in blocks around key fishing times with solunar taken into account, (sunrise, sunset, moonrise, moonset, underfoot). This breaks my day up a bit and gives more time to camp, exploration, naps, etc...

Here is what a trip plan looks like for me; (of course weather trumps everything, but that can't be planned.)



Nomad
July 3rd week fish plan

Nomadmusky: "...Here is what a trip plan looks like for me; (of course weather trumps everything, but that can't be planned.)
"

Wow Nomad. That schedule is very impressive. I dont have any doubt that following that schedule would yield way more fish than my mid-day only strategy...

I’ve done the base camp fishing trips. They are fun and we always caught tons of fish and big fish, we also always take leeches and troll whenever we’re paddling. Lately we’ve done more traveling, this year was a 10 day loop moved 6 times but we caught walleyes from every campsite we camped at. I do always take a handheld depth finder too.

I'll be honest a trip to BWCA does not include wanting to lug around a battery to power a depth finder...just me LOL

We did AWESOME on fish last trip just locating cuts, depth changes by site and studying maps/aerials.

Every time I'm on the water fishing - it's "real".
"Catching" is the goal, but success in that vein varies with lots of factors like time of year, fish species movements, the fisherman's experience and ability to be flexible, presentation, and on and on.
This year we worked hard to have our fish fries, but when they happened - they were delicious! We covered many miles per day to fill the pan. We are NEVER interested in filling a stringer and only keep what we can comfortably eat.
It's amazing how much meat there is on a 24 inch walleye.
Last year on the same week my fishing partner's and my right wrist were literally sore from four straight days of boating maybe 100 18-22 inch smallies every single day. It didn't matter what we did.
This year three of us did not catch 40 in the entire trip.
I would rather eat northern than any other fish. Walleye are pretty worthless as far as eating goes. They only taste like whatever seasoning you put in the flour. But no matter how hard we tried to have a northern meal, we could only catch hammer handles. Three of us never caught a cleaning sized northern in five days of fishing. That's NEVER happened to me.
Relax and enjoy the ones you do catch.
Spend time on the water.
Do everything you can think of.
They're out there - you've just got to find them and enjoy the ride.

I really enjoy fishing and do it frequently. I have fished for many species using many techniques. Compared to most, I am a good fisherman.

When I am in the BW, sometimes I feel like fishing and sometimes I don't. Its cool to catch fish, but also to see some pictographs, lay in a waterfall, paddle around n a shallow bay, throw a stick for my pup, teach others to fish, look for orchids and watch wildlife. If I enjoy it, its real.

If you seem to sleep later and get back to camp at the "wrong" time, maybe that is telling you that you have set your priorities that way. If that is so, there is still plenty to enjoy.