Hope everyone's summer has offered the opportunity to safely get into the wilderness. I'm looking for input on an upcoming trip from those in the know. I've read trip reports and sections from Daniel Pauly's book but would still welcome suggestions.

We (group of 2 reasonably fit guys in late 20's) put in at EP 16 Moose River North on September 17th and come out on the 20th so it's not a very long trip. We're staying at VNO bunkhouse the night before so should get an early start. This is a fishing-focused trip so we're not planning on visiting pictos, falls, etc. We'd like to target both walleyes and lake trout. I'd assume we'll run into smallmouth and pike as well but they aren't the goal.

My thought is that we'd base camp to maximize fishing time. I'm assuming Oyster is less busy than Agnes so likely would camp there. We plan to target lakers on Oyster and walleyes (and sauger and panfish) on Agnes.

Assuming an early start I'm wondering how reasonable it would be to push from the entry up the river through Nina Moose and into Agnes, then portage over to Oyster all on our first day. I've read that it's generally best to ignore the temptation to deviate into the Oyster River as a shortcut and just accept the Agnes > Oyster portage as the better route.

Let me know if you see any glaring concerns with this plan or have any advice to offer. Thanks!

You could make it from EP#16 to Oyster. I went from Oyster to EP #16, double portaging, in my mid-50's, then walked to EP #14 for my car. It was a long day for me, but not out of the question for you at all.

Your plan sounds good. If you get a good start you should be able to do it. Less people in the park then so crowding shouldn't be as big of an issue even if you do stay on Agnes. Days are shorter then so you won't probably be starting at 5am like you can now.

Portages shouldn't be too crowded Thurs. in mid-Sept., although it's a popular entry. Do try to get an early start. It's about an hour drive out to the EP.

If you base camp on Oyster, take a day trip to Hustler for good pike and smallmouth fishing. It's a long portage, but isn't too bad with just a canoe and fishing gear.

I'm 61 and went from Gebeonequet to EP16 in one day just last May. Solo, single portage, with a crap ass south headwind. Long day. You guys should be able to do your trip with no problem.

All doable. My son and I did EP16 to Oyster on labor day weekend a couple years ago in about 6.5 hours single portaging. We skipped the river, thought it would be quicker taking the portage. After labor day we were the only people on Oyster. You might consider going to LLC for walleye, and depart from there instead of Agnes.

A few years ago my wife and I (in our 60’s) went from Oyster to the entry point double portaging so you should have no trouble.
Unlikely in the fall to have high enough water to risk going up the river.

Thanks everyone for your input - I feel much better about our ability to get from the EP to a campsite on Oyster in one day. That said, it's a dedicated fishing base camp trip so we won't be traveling particularly light and will almost certainly double portage until we set up camp and unload the majority of our gear.

One interesting idea would be to forego staying on Oyster and just make our first day push to a site on the south end of LLC, perhaps in the Tiger Bay area just NE of Agnes. LLC would be our walleye lake and has lake trout as well but it's such a big body of water I don't know where to look for them (will do additional research). As a fallback, maybe it's feasible to go to LLC for our base camp and take a day trip down to Oyster for lake trout. Thoughts on this?

I'd imagine with this approach (first day push to LLC) we'd essentially get one day to fish LLC and one day for our day trip over to Oyster and back. Then the final day would just be traveling out, reversing our course in from the first travel day.

Sorry if I'm obsessing a bit; I basically just want to maximize fishing time and be able to target both walleyes and lake trout regardless of lakes visited.

I'd stay on Agnes then

Thought I’d bring this one back since we’re leaving next week. Does anyone have any recent updates on the bear activity reported around Agnes earlier this summer?

One last attempt here...heading in on Thursday. Anyone been in the area lately and know of water levels, water temp, crowds vs permits taken, bear activity, etc? Just anything worth knowing I guess. TIA!