Last year was my first attempt at chasing grouse, duck and deer in the Boundary Waters with mixed success (a few grouse, a few ducks and one big buck sighting).

Is anyone here planning to get into the BW to do any hunting this fall? If so, do you have any general advice for finding success in an area with SOOO much water and woods to cover? I struggled with sensory overload last year: too many areas to hunt, worries about ice-up, where to get started, what areas to hunt, what to look for in terms of terrain/ecosystems, etc.

Any advice would be much appreciated!

I wish I could be up there to hunt. Maybe one day. Definitely a dream of mine.
Find the doe, when is the rut in that area? Find out when that typically occurs. In my neck of the woods it is early November up to Veterans Day. Hunt around Halloween; lots of big bucks killed around that time. If you can target most of your days just prior and during to the rut when bucks are in the chase phase, it can be some amazing action. Hope you have good success like your fishing has been. Be safe.

PeaceFrog is right on with his advice Eric. The only thing that I would add would be to look for some oak ridges to hunt before the rut. I know that they can be few and far between in the BW but if you find them they could be a prime spot to set up.
Blessings

Not sure about your answer to the rut question, but unless I start bow/black powder hunting the season doesn't start until Nov 6 up here. I hope to take the entire first week of the season off and spend 8-10 days in the area gathering more information and probably hunt the final two weekends as well.

I do know of one oak ridge in the BW, but it is like 12 miles in and one nasty portage to access, so it is unlikely that would happen. We generally have good, fishable ice up here on smaller lakes the second week in Nov, so I really don't want to risk getting iced in (which almost happened to us last year).

I was responding as a bowhunter which would cover the end of October and early November. For gun season I'm sure your access is more limited because of the ice forming. Good luck!

I was close to the BWCA one year in Superior National Forest. We hunted deer for a week and only a few Doe. I should have hunted Grouse that week.

I would think hunting burn areas that are starting to come back would be good for Deer. Deer love young saplings. Problem with that though is those areas grow back very thick so it would be hard to see them. Areas like that to me would be a still hunt type of hunt. Not a stand type of hunt.

Can't wait for deer season!!!

I hunted a burn for ten years after it burned. It was really good the first 4 years. Then the trees that were left standing started going down creating a tangled mess. This coincided with less deer using it. It’s been 12 years now and you can’t see 30 yards.

ericinely: "Not sure about your answer to the rut question, but unless I start bow/black powder hunting the season doesn't start until Nov 6 up here. I hope to take the entire first week of the season off and spend 8-10 days in the area gathering more information and probably hunt the final two weekends as well.


I do know of one oak ridge in the BW, but it is like 12 miles in and one nasty portage to access, so it is unlikely that would happen. We generally have good, fishable ice up here on smaller lakes the second week in Nov, so I really don't want to risk getting iced in (which almost happened to us last year).


"

Gotcha. I am not familiar with the deer season dates in MN. I am assuming you will be hunting with a rifle or shotgun. If 11/6 is your start, you may be in good shape. If the area you will be hunting does not get much pressure, the deer may not move much unless the doe are in heat or going into heat. If there is snow on the ground, I would still hunt and search for doe and doe bedding areas. If you find the beds, figure out how they are traveling to and from the bedding areas. When you figure the travel route then you can look for a saddle or pinch point to set up near. Best of luck and please update when your hunt is over. If you are looking to put meat in the freezer, young does are oh so yummy. IMHO
OT - ok to private message you to pick your brain about a fishing topic?

What area of the bwca are you hunting?

Finnboy: "I hunted a burn for ten years after it burned. It was really good the first 4 years. Then the trees that were left standing started going down creating a tangled mess. This coincided with less deer using it. It’s been 12 years now and you can’t see 30 yards. "

This was our experience in the Pagami Creek Fire burn area in 2019. Anything with a center of gravity higher than a raccoon would want no part of it.

Eric,
You may know this already, but there’s a pretty nice oak ridge on the NE end of Ensign Lake. I was camped in the middle of it last week and saw deer tracks all over the place back there. Lots of game trails too. Ensign might not freeze up as quickly and it’s mostly bigger water to get there so you may be in luck there.

Tony

GopherAdventure: "Eric,
You may know this already, but there’s a pretty nice oak ridge on the NE end of Ensign Lake. I was camped in the middle of it last week and saw deer tracks all over the place back there. Lots of game trails too. Ensign might not freeze up as quickly and it’s mostly bigger water to get there so you may be in luck there.


Tony"

Good point for those talking oak ridges. Deer prefer white oak over red. If you don't have oaks in the area hunting, find what their food source is and hunt it.

Check out
Thehunting beast.com
Tons and tons of info on there.
Good luck if you make it.
That is on my bucket list hunting the bwca!
If it was me I would look for funnels and hunt ridge tops.

I'm not going to. I think I'll stick to NW Illinois.

yogi59weedr: "
I'm not going to. I think I'll stick to NW Illinois. "

WOW

Between 2006-2010 I made a few cast'em & blast'em trips. The best grouse hunting I remember from those trips was north of site 1607 on Basswood. We bushwhacked north of the site and had success finding grouse. If I remember correctly not far from the site the land rises to a ridge and we shot (3-5) grouse in that area on multiple trips.

If looking for Grouse I've also been informed from hunting friends that the Ham Lake fire area is productive. Though, I think we're on the downward peak in the 10-year cycle so that might impact hunting success.

Not BWCA, But buddy bought a farm bout 45 minutes south of Cloque.
He shot a bear this year and wants me to come up next year to wack one.
How is bear meat to eat.
Only like 225$ over the counter non resident.
Not really wanting to take on unless I like the taste.
He's gonna bring me some to try.
Any suggestions?

yogi59weedr: "Not BWCA, But buddy bought a farm bout 45 minutes south of Cloque.
He shot a bear this year and wants me to come up next year to wack one.
How is bear meat to eat.
Only like 225$ over the counter non resident.
Not really wanting to take on unless I like the taste.
He's gonna bring me some to try.
Any suggestions?"

I've had some wonderful bear meat.

But our host who prepared the meal was adamant that bear meat will go rancid super-fast... The key is (according to him) to get it skinned and cooling on ice within two hours.

I work hard to get deer cooling fast and enjoy excellent table fare as a result.

That is what I herd.
He had it to a processer in 3 hrs.
We have a plywood box with a 100$. air conditioner We use to cool before butchering.
We hang when we get back to camp and get it cool pronto.

Pronto to camp....
Hang.
Skin.
Cut out loins.
Hang in air box.
By my self 1 hour
With a crew half that.

Use to cut hide off the next day.
Hang it quick and it pulls right off.
Has grouse and turkey also.

yogi59weedr: "Not BWCA, But buddy bought a farm bout 45 minutes south of Cloque.
He shot a bear this year and wants me to come up next year to wack one.
How is bear meat to eat.
Only like 225$ over the counter non resident.
Not really wanting to take on unless I like the taste.
He's gonna bring me some to try.
Any suggestions?"

I love venison and hate bear meat. Each has its own taste. Bear is very fat and could turn rancid very fast and past few years you would be hunting in temps around 75 degrees early season.

YaMarVa. ”If looking for Grouse I've also been informed from hunting friends that the Ham Lake fire area is productive. Though, I think we're on the downward peak in the 10-year cycle so that might impact hunting success."

Had to step carefully not to trip on the omnipresent Spruce Grouse around Seagull this weekend. BIL also saw a Ruffed near our campsite.

Thanks everyone for your great responses, TONS of useful info here. I will be hunting somewhere on the Ely side with my new Henry .30-30 deer rifle (lever action, no scope for brush hunting) so I plan to move A LOT and cover as much ground as possible to increase my chances of seeing a deer. The lack of snowfall last year made it difficult to move around without making a ton of noise, so I think I will likely spend a lot of time sitting.

I do have a climbing deer stand that I bring with me but I may use that as more of a permanent stand, as bushwhacking with is is challenging, if not impossible with all of the other gear I will need to bring along. I hope to basecamp somewhere easily accessible to an entry point and do day-trips from there. I will be spending my time looking for ridges with good vantage points, game trails, pinch-points, etc.

After all of this warm weather we have gotten in the last two weeks, I don't know if I will run into ice as much this year so that should give me more options for travel. Like I said, I have plenty of options, just need to get out and start scouting...

Best of luck to all of the bear hunters up there this year...

A quick update to all of you following along: I made it into the BWCA for two great late-season trips, one Sept 27-Oct 1st to chase lakers on Thomas and one Oct 5-10 to chase walleyes on Insula.

On both trips we brought along shotguns and blaze and on the last we brought 6 decoys and a portable mesh-style duck blind. The duck hunting was incredibly slow due to what I believe was the unseasonably warm weather. Other than the early morning hours, almost nothing was flying. We did manage to stalk and shoot a few diver ducks, some big hooded mergansers and did shoot a few grouse we chased into the woods near our campsites and one portage trail (don't worry, we were way back in the woods, nowhere near either).

My takeaway is to go fast and light. Maybe if we had the right conditions (40 degrees and rain or wind) our decoys and blind would have been more lucrative-I felt like we were set up in a perfect spot back in a swampy marsh off a good spot on the Kawishiwi river up by Insula but only saw two ducks flying which refused to be called in to the decoys. We had far more success fishing all day and keeping our shotguns in the boat. When the fishing slowed, we would paddle secluded bays or areas that looked "ducky" and try to creep up on them.

In the end between both trips we got 3 grouse and 4 ducks, which isn't bad considering our main goal was fishing; hunting was kind of an afterthought.

Having fresh fish, grouse AND duck really made our meals at night over the campfire a lot of fun: "what should we fry up next? I am feeling like a grouse this time!"

Some good duck hunting can be had in where rice is present.

If you get to fill a deer tag, fresh backstrap on the fire. Oh my! Yum!

Mergansers...They are terrible. I've only found one recipe that worked;

Preheat oven to 350. Take Merg breasts and season with salt and pepper to taste. In small bowl pour 1 cup of whiskey and 1 cup of sweet and sour mix. Place merg breasts in 13x9 glass baking dish. bake for 20 minutes. Let mergansers cool. Take mergansers outside for the dog to eat. While merganser was cooling, put a pizza in oven for 12 to 20 minutes. Finish rest of bottle of whiskey, eat pizza and laugh at the dog for eating some nasty *** merganser.

We've hunted duck and grouse in the BW and had decent success. Never hunted deer, but i'd like to try sometime. Good Luck!

There is a stand of oaks straight across From the access to slim lake. Whole little valley of them. Usually has a lot of deer sign.

Wow, Eric- your bird hunting / fishing trip sounds absolutely fantastic.
Good stuff!!

Hunted the BWCA many times in the past for grouse and deer.
In the late 60's it seemed like a deer was behind every bush. 1969 before deer season ended snow was already over a foot deep and kept snowing to a depth of over 3 feet. Deer numbers never did return to former abundance. Wolves and harsh winter for quite a few years was tough on them.

Speckled: Haha, I know Mergansers aren't great, but I feel like they taste just fine. Massive amount of leg meat on those diver ducks, too. I always soak my wild game (even fish) in a salt and water solution for at least 24 hours and I really think it helps with the gamey taste, which I generally don't mind. I also ALWAYS cook my duck to medium/medium rare, which also really helps. If not, a sweet barbecue glaze usually takes care of the gamey taste. In the end I find more pride in hunting and fishing for my own protein and knowing exactly where it came from. At the end of the day its a meal I don't have to buy from the grocery store. I can choke down mergansers no problem...

Mordan: THANK YOU!! I will check that out. All I care about is getting into the woods to wander around and learn more about being a sportsman and a steward of this incredible land. I can't wait to walk around and explore new areas. I would love to put meat in the freezer, but I just ordered 1/4 of beef and 1/2 of lamb, so either way the freezer will have meat in it. :)

We just got back from a quick overnight out of Ely. My husband is just getting back into grouse hunting. He had a great hunt and ended up with 4 grouse in one evening and one morning. I got some nice hiking in while he enjoyed the hunt.

straighthairedcurly: "We just got back from a quick overnight out of Ely. My husband is just getting back into grouse hunting. He had a great hunt and ended up with 4 grouse in one evening and one morning. I got some nice hiking in while he enjoyed the hunt."

We just enjoyed a delicious grouse dinner last night. Yummy! My first time having grouse.

Use to be able to go down the Wolf lake road west of Burnside up to the BWCA than you had old logging trails all the way to Cummings almost and south of Western. Great hunting country.

Eric, did you get into the BWCA for deer hunting this fall? The weather was definitely nice enough for the first few days of season.