As many of you know, MNDNR provides data on fish species, quantity, and size for most lakes in the BWCA. I am of the opinion that the data is mostly worthless. According to that data, and supported by some others who probably only looked at that data and never really fished the lake, Beartrack has nothing more than a small population of green sunfish and yellow perch.

Really? The lake is almost 60 feet deep! You mean to tell me there are no walleye, pike, or bass in that lake? Sounds like the perfect lake to grow a trophy pike or bass.

Surely some of you have experience fishing Beartrack. What gives?

Tight Line,

Bassmaster P

Don't feel bad. I've been going to Quetico for years and have determined that it's all fished out. ;)

Minnesota DNR lakefinder.com is a tool like any other tool. It can give you some insight but not by any means a golden rule, especially when it comes to the BWCA lakes.
Beartrack is a good example, for a few reasons.

Since the DNR has been keeping records of netting surveys, this lake has only been surveyed twice, so not much history here. I do agree one would think they would have netted something other than just sunfish-perch-sucker.

Other factors in the wilderness type area is how much time was the crew able to put in on any given lake (weather, time of year, the dog days of summer) on a stream trout lake could be difficult to net much of anything. Could be belly on the bottom.

Some lakes get surveyed more often than others that are out of the way. Some can be very vague. One personal experience, DNR netted three lake trout on this lake, did a trip there and caught well over 40 lakers in four days and filled our bellies. I could mention a couple of other gems, but I wont. ;)

So it's a good tool, but one never knows, and one might get surprised or let down or just bad fishing conditions (cold front).

A lake just west of me was treated more as a duck slough (not deep) than a fishing lake. Somebody fished it one year and opened their mouth (loose lips sinks ships) people were consistently catching those 12"-15" crappies until man fished it out. Must have had a good year or two of spawning conditions, but I heard they tasted NASTY.

Thanks for the reply. I'm with you on the validity/completeness of he data published. As an angler being forced into the BWCA by a closed Canadian border, I just found it disheartening that several people talk about BWCA lakes with terms like "fishless" or "...only has green sunfish". Really? Come on. Of the 50+ Quetico lakes I've paddled in the past 2 years I seriously doubt a single one of them are completely, or even remotely, void of smallmouth bass. I guess I'll chalk up such comments to inexperienced or ignorant amateur anglers. No offence if anyone reading this fits that description.

Short of someone posting a definitive account of fishing Beartrack hard for days with nothing but a stringer full of small perch to show for it - I feel I have no choice but to have my crew of 6 seasoned fisherman hammer on Beartrack hard for a few hours a few weeks from now.

Challenge accepted!

Thanks,

Bassmaster P

I have fished Steep, Little Beartrack, and Beartrack back in the the early 80's. We used to fish every single lake. This was before the internet obviously. I think we might have gotten a stunted rock bass or two, but these lakes were oddly fishless. I have heard the same thing from other people, and I think the lakes have come up on this board over the years.

When MNDNR Lakefinder came along, it was interesting to see that their assessment pretty much matched my experience.

Now having said that, you never know when things can change. So enjoy the experience, and please let us know what you find out!

Thanks - very much appreciate the insight. Perhaps we'll give it a once-over..but considering that general area seems kind of dead, perhaps we'll skip it all together.

Not quite fishless. I fished Beartrack HARD on my first BWCA trip. It was over 20 years ago but I have fond memories of fishing it. No Catching whatsoever!!! Had one "encounter" with a sunfish. Watching my line around 25' down the panfish emerged from under a ledge and whacked my 6 lb flourescent Stren. Easily the clearest lake I have ever seen, anywhere. I chalked that up to elevation - i believe it is the highest (in altitude) lake in the area. Water flows OUT OF Beartrack but none flows into it as far as I could tell. Not sure how the sunfish got up the hill but my experience says not much else in the way of gamefish ever has. I could be wrong but like I said I fished it hard
Did not try at night, did not try lighter than 6lb test. Had some nice bouldery SMB type areas in it too so I was a little shocked by the lack of results. Tight lines!! (just not in Beartrack lake)

thanks for the extra insight H2O , sounds like beartrack could be a good candidate for a stocked brook trout lake ? wonder how or if the DNR has ever considered that ?

Thanks for the replies.

Keeping my fingers crossed that the Canadian border opens this month as scheduled so we can stick to our Quetico plan. I'm very disappointed with our BWCA options on the Western side so far as fishing smaller secluded lakes go. I know we can find good fishing in lakes such as Takumich, Gun, Finger, Pocket, etc. but we also have to share them with the masses. When first looking at maps I plotted a less-traveled route through Beartrack, Little Beartrack, Eugene, Steep, North, and Slim. But through multiple discussions on this site - it seems those lakes are pretty sad fishing lakes. Maybe I've just gotten lucky, but most, if not all, of the small lakes we traverse in Quetico (even tiny no name lakes) have produced some great fishing.

Our revised plan at this point is to spend the vast majority of our time in and around LLC.

Thanks for all the input folks.

P

BassmasterP: "Thanks for the replies.


Keeping my fingers crossed that the Canadian border opens this month as scheduled so we can stick to our Quetico plan. I'm very disappointed with our BWCA options on the Western side so far as fishing smaller secluded lakes go. I know we can find good fishing in lakes such as Takumich, Gun, Finger, Pocket, etc. but we also have to share them with the masses.

P"

I just travelled through Beartrack, Finger and Pocket on about the 22nd and 23rd of June. I did not fish Beartrack hard. I had a slip bobber out with a leech from camp. I caught zero fish.

I caught a small mouth from camp on Pocket that became dinner. My motivation to fish evaporated once dinner was secured.

The main reason I wanted to comment is that when I passed through, we saw one occupied camp site on Eugene. In general, we saw few occupied camp sites and few people on the water or on portages. We had Beartrack to ourselves. We saw an occupied campsite on Thumb. We saw no one on Finger. We saw one group of two canoes pass by on Pocket. When we camped on Pocket we had the lake to ourselves. I found these lakes to be lightly travelled. If you go this route, I don't think you will be sharing with the masses.

If you are near Beartrack, you would probably be better served to move up to Gun for fishing. I have read reports that it has good small mouth action on this site. I also met the solo canoeist occupying a camp site on Eugene later in my trip. He mentioned catching a 10lb lake trout on Gun. He also was able to catch lake trout on Fat.

Good information, thanks. What you describe, so far as encounters with other people, is what I consider "the masses" - but that's just me. We've done several trips to Quetico during the busiest time of the year - early to mid August. Once we went he 1st weekend of September. Each trip was 10 days long. On one trip we saw a canoe parked on an island on Brent and some smoke from a fire. On another we saw a canoe pass by our campsite on Argo on day 9 - a pretty popular lake. And then we always see a few folks near our takeout near the U.S border on the last day of our trip. But other than that...we paddle and hike a combined 70+ miles each trip and have never seen another soul. We normally do a big loop taking us through Wicksteed, Darky, Brent, Earl, Ted, Hurn, Elk, Argo, Rolands, etc... and we have it all to ourselves. Of course, that's not true. There are others on the same lakes we pass through - particularly the bigger ones - but the chances of bumping in to them are slim. I read several times that the # of visitors to BWCA vs Quetico is in the ballpark of 250k vs 15k, annually, and I believe it. But I digress....not the portage I wanted to head down with this reply...

I agree...if we were to do the Beartrack route we'd get the seclusion, but probably not the fish. And if we visited Pocket, Finger, etc. we'd get the fish and we'd see a few people, which we'd like to avoid, but it's not the worst thing, obviously. I mean...we're forced to camp in designated sites and crap in a toilet, so... the wilderness experience has been minimized already...what's a few people along the way. :)

!$BR

BR!$

rdgbwca: "

BassmasterP: "Thanks for the replies.



Keeping my fingers crossed that the Canadian border opens this month as scheduled so we can stick to our Quetico plan. I'm very disappointed with our BWCA options on the Western side so far as fishing smaller secluded lakes go. I know we can find good fishing in lakes such as Takumich, Gun, Finger, Pocket, etc. but we also have to share them with the masses.


P"

I just travelled through Beartrack, Finger and Pocket on about the 22nd and 23rd of June. I did not fish Beartrack hard. I had a slip bobber out with a leech from camp. I caught zero fish.


I caught a small mouth from camp on Pocket that became dinner. My motivation to fish evaporated once dinner was secured.


The main reason I wanted to comment is that when I passed through, we saw one occupied camp site on Eugene. In general, we saw few occupied camp sites and few people on the water or on portages. We had Beartrack to ourselves. We saw an occupied campsite on Thumb. We saw no one on Finger. We saw one group of two canoes pass by on Pocket. When we camped on Pocket we had the lake to ourselves. I found these lakes to be lightly travelled. If you go this route, I don't think you will be sharing with the masses.


If you are near Beartrack, you would probably be better served to move up to Gun for fishing. I have read reports that it has good small mouth action on this site. I also met the solo canoeist occupying a camp site on Eugene later in my trip. He mentioned catching a 10lb lake trout on Gun. He also was able to catch lake trout on Fat."

Nice to meet you rdgbwca. I stayed on Eugene for three nights. I fished Fat and Gun, but not the other lakes. I caught several large bass on Gun along with 2 large lake trout. On Fat Lake I caught many eater lakers. A lot of fun. With more time I would have tried fishing Beartrack and Eugene. I also stayed on finger for a night and did catch a five lb pike. Next year I plan on spending more time on Thumb, Finger and Pocket. I also caught two 28 inch walleye on Gebe.

egknuti: "

Nice to meet you rdgbwca. I stayed on Eugene for three nights. I fished Fat and Gun, but not the other lakes. I caught several large bass on Gun along with 2 large lake trout. On Fat Lake I caught many eater lakers. A lot of fun. With more time I would have tried fishing Beartrack and Eugene. I also stayed on finger for a night and did catch a five lb pike. Next year I plan on spending more time on Thumb, Finger and Pocket. I also caught two 28 inch walleye on Gebe. "

It was nice to meet you too egknuti. Your reports of laker success were an extra bit of encouragement for my stay on Oyster. I was nervous we might have been too late in the year already.

I have also read on this site that Eugene is a good pike lake.

Were you trolling for walleye or jigging or something else? The bwca walleye have still eluded my attempts with a slip bobber and leech.

rdgbwca: "

egknuti: "


Nice to meet you rdgbwca. I stayed on Eugene for three nights. I fished Fat and Gun, but not the other lakes. I caught several large bass on Gun along with 2 large lake trout. On Fat Lake I caught many eater lakers. A lot of fun. With more time I would have tried fishing Beartrack and Eugene. I also stayed on finger for a night and did catch a five lb pike. Next year I plan on spending more time on Thumb, Finger and Pocket. I also caught two 28 inch walleye on Gebe. "

It was nice to meet you too egknuti. Your reports of laker success were an extra bit of encouragement for my stay on Oyster. I was nervous we might have been too late in the year already.


I have also read on this site that Eugene is a good pike lake.


Were you trolling for walleye or jigging or something else? The bwca walleye have still eluded my attempts with a slip bobber and leech. "

I found a spot on Gebe just in the north side of the site closest to portage to Green where the shoreline was shallow out for about 100 yards. The wind was blowing into shore so I started casting to deeper water. I started catching bass but I soon hooked two beautiful walleye. I wished I had stayed another day there.
Oyster was also good to me as well. I caught lakers between 60 and 90 feet of water. I caught several over 6lbs.