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Snortyyy
  
10/18/2020 03:09PM  
A couple of buddies and I are planning our usual trip up to the BWCA around alpine lake for the new year. This year we are determined to not get skunked fishing and just wondering if anyone has any experience ice fishing around this area. Any info helps!
 
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10/19/2020 04:47PM  
when is your trip planned for ?
 
Snortyyy
  
12/07/2020 01:34AM  
Sorry for the late response, but the start January!
 
12/07/2020 06:44AM  
your going to hike into alpine lake ??? for walleyes ?
 
Snortyyy
  
12/07/2020 05:55PM  
Well we are looking for Lakers along with a pretty decent hike in. The destination is definitely subject to change, but we are looking for a decent bit of solitude and some trout. Any ideas of where that could be would be very appreciated.
 
12/07/2020 06:15PM  
seagull will do nicely , a couple of ice fishing videos on youtube about seagull winter trout fishing , but yes if you want lakers stay on seagull.
 
Snortyyy
  
12/07/2020 07:38PM  
Thanks for the tips I appreciate it! You heard anything about Tuscarora or Crooked in the winter? I have wanted to try getting to Crooked to see what it is like.
 
12/08/2020 09:18AM  
long winter portage into tusc. seen a video of a group doing a dogsled trip in.
depends on how much you want to work or just want a longer journey.
others may chime in on crooked.
 
12/08/2020 09:23AM  
SNORTY , A thread going on in the trip planning forum on crooked lake
 
12/08/2020 11:50AM  
Tuscarora Lake usually has a pretty good trail set to it as it gets a decent number of visitors in the winter. There are some hills but it seems to be popular for good reason. Tuscarora Lodge usually makes sure the trail is in good condition, and they also put up a lot of winter oriented videos on Youtube. If you want to head further, you could certainly push on to Crooked or even Gillis, which may or may not have a trail set - but that just makes it a bit more interesting.
 
whitecedar
distinguished member (350)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
12/16/2020 07:25PM  
seagull
 
ericinely
distinguished member (297)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
12/17/2020 01:01PM  
oof...I would not want to hike all the way across seagull to get into alpine. If you are going for lakers, Seagull is where you want to be anyways. If you are trying to get away from the crowds, you shouldn't need to go any further than the west side of Three Mile Island, or, if you are super ambitious the west side of Seagull. We camped and fished near Miles Island (up by the palisades) a week after statewide trout opener (MLK weekend) a few years ago and only ran into one other group. We had great fishing in 60' of water.
That northern section from the campground has a lot of pinch-points that will remain open pretty much all winter (there are easy areas to hike around the water on land) so be very careful if you go in that route. It is closer than going in at the public launch and much less exposed. As it is quite sheltered up there, we ran into a lot of deep snow drifts, which made the two mile hike in quite grueling. I seem to remember it taking 3-4 hours to do that short hike. Walk 100 yards...rest for 5 minutes...walk for 100 yards....and so on.

The palisades are absolutely gorgous in the winter, I would recommend at least hiking by if you aren't going to camp nearby. Again, if you get more than 2-3 miles in on Seagull, you will likely have the place to yourself.
 
redbeardcanoeworks
member (47)member
  
12/17/2020 01:34PM  
Paulson lake south of Seagull. Also known as JAP.
A very serious portage trail in but incredible fishing for smaller lakers.
I believe there is a great video on Youtube.
Pretty lake, extreme solitude.
 
12/17/2020 03:37PM  
I don't see that anyone has called it out yet, so just wanted to make sure you were aware that if you did stay on Seagull the trout opener is the 16th since it isn't entirely within the BWCA. Aside from that, all the comments above are correct - you will likely have plenty of solitude and better laker fishing than Alpine. Been going up there in March for a few years and rarely ran into others, which I assume is a busier time.
 
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