Someone recently told me about this group and I'm excited to see what everyone else is hunting in the BWCA.

Hunting the BWCA has been a tough go for me - i've been doing fall trips for most of the past 8 years and we really struggled with hunting until last year. We always catch a bucketload of walleyes and that has always kept our focus away from hunting, but we almost always had at least one shotgun in case the opportunity presented itself. In years past we got the occasional duck, merganser(will never make that mistake again), or grouse.

Last year everything changed. The area we camped was loaded with grouse, and we were a one hour paddle away from dynomite dabbler duck hunting. Several of the shallow bays were absolutely filled with dabblers and we were able to get a few teal to go with our surf and turf lunch. It was delicious!

I'm not sure if we found "the spot" or if we just hit the timing right, but I'm pretty confident that we will be able to scratch out a few ducks next year as well and i'm really looking forward to the opportunity.

I wanted to know if anyone else hunts, and what you have been successful with? Not your spots - I didn't give mine - but what you're after and what type of structure you look for to find success. For us it was shallow bays and rivers/creeks lined with rice. I thought the creeks would be more productive, but there was low water last year and there were way more ducks in the shallow bays. I think if the water level was normal or high we would have done much better at the mouths of the creeks, but who knows?

Feel free to join in and tell us all what you like to hunt, what you look for in a good hunting spot, and maybe throw in a couple stories or humble brags!

I’ve always wanted to hunt grouse and catch walleyes in the BWCA on a trip, but I think it will never happen. I got into pheasant hunting and once October comes around that’s pretty much all I do until January. My partner/dog is worthless in a canoe but a bird finder in the field and if he can’t go, I don’t really care to go.

I think that’s the tough part about BWCAW hunting…if your after deer, grouse or ducks…there are just too many other great places to go or we all have our traditions somewhere else.

Hope others have better answers than me! Mines lame I know.

T

I've made three "attempts" at bear:

2019: 2019 BWCAW Traditional Archery Bowhunt

2020: Planned and packed to go but Covid-19 pandemic flared up and things got crazy in the run-up to the election. Had two partners cancel at last minute. Packed to go solo and pulled the plug when the weather turned nasty.

2021: Brought a new hunter who wasn't thrilled with the lack of deer sign and ended the hunt early for his sake.

Yep, I'm certifiable – same thing on tap for this fall. Only an outbreak of plague will keep me home this time.

Grouse. Had so much fun last fall that we are going to make it an annual thing. I hike and my husband wanders in a small area hunting grouse. Everyone happy.

timatkn: "I’ve always wanted to hunt grouse and catch walleyes in the BWCA on a trip, but I think it will never happen. I got into pheasant hunting and once October comes around that’s pretty much all I do until January. My partner/dog is worthless in a canoe but a bird finder in the field and if he can’t go, I don’t really care to go.


I think that’s the tough part about BWCAW hunting…if your after deer, grouse or ducks…there are just too many other great places to go or we all have our traditions somewhere else.


Hope others have better answers than me! Mines lame I know.


T"

I was feeling the exact same way as you until a couple years ago. We would bring the guns and never got more than a single duck or merganser. PSA - Never shoot a merganser, they don't even taste good in the bwca. Lol.

You really just need to put in a lot of time and do a lot of exploring and eventually you will find where the birds are. And when you find them, you can find A LOT of them. I can't speak for the deer or bear hunters. I've only ever seen 1 deer up there, but it was a really nice 8 pt buck swimming across the lake.

A few yrs ago everything changed when we took a 14 ft boat with a 25 hp motor and camped on an island on saganaga because it was too windy to go to our normal bwca spot - for 4 days straight the winds went over 25 mph. We got 6 grouse on our 50 acre island and we left at least 4-5 behind. It was unreal!

At our normal spots we never saw any grouse outside of an occasional bird on a portage, or when we stoped at a campsite to have a lunch break. Ducks were always very spotty as well- we would see a few, but never enough to pull me away from the dynomite walleye fishing during the mornings or evenings.

Last year we put in an afternoon to go explore some of the shallow bays and creeks that were full of rice and we found massive rafts of waterfowl. Without question my best day of duck hunting last year was in the bwca and I duck hunted about 10 days last year. We didn't shoot limits or anything - that would be pretty wasteful in the bwca, but we did shoot a couple the one day we went and when we arrived in the 80 acre bay we probably flushed 500-700 ducks and at least 200-300 geese. It was unreal. We arrived in the middle of the day and we only had one gun, but we got 2 teal in the 40 minutes we were there from about 12-1240. Next year we're bringing 2 guns, a call, and 3-4 inflatable decoys. Either way we're probably limited to shooting about 2 birds per person just because that's all we can eat in a day and we have no way to store the meat. We're really hoping that we didn't nail the migration last year and now the birds will either be up north or down south when we're in the neighborhood. We usually go the first or second week of october

Back around camp we also saw quite a few grouse and heard quite a bit of drumming. My camping partner missed every shot he took, but I know if we spent a couple hours on a mission we could have gotten several. But again, we only had one gun and the walleye fishing was unreal, so we wanted to focus more of our time fishing.

I hope that helps. Honestly it's probably not worth bringing a gun until you actually find the birds, but when you do there can be quite a bit. Good luck.

gravelroad: "I've made three "attempts" at bear:

2019: 2019 BWCAW Traditional Archery Bowhunt

2020: Planned and packed to go but Covid-19 pandemic flared up and things got crazy in the run-up to the election. Had two partners cancel at last minute. Packed to go solo and pulled the plug when the weather turned nasty.

2021: Brought a new hunter who wasn't thrilled with the lack of deer sign and ended the hunt early for his sake.

Yep, I'm certifiable – same thing on tap for this fall. Only an outbreak of plague will keep me home this time. "

I've never seen bear in the bwca and only ever saw one deer, but it was a nice 8 pt. I think I have seen more Moose and Wolf tracks on portages than deer. I'm not sure the population is very high, but if you can find one good on you! It would certainly be something to brag about! So would portaging it out! Good luck!

Maybe the recent fire areas would be a good place to start? You could see a lot further and the deer like the fresh undergrowth that thrives after the fires. Maybe setting up on the edge of the old forest and a burn area? Full disclosure - I have no idea, but that would probably where I would start.

straighthairedcurly: "Grouse. Had so much fun last fall that we are going to make it an annual thing. I hike and my husband wanders in a small area hunting grouse. Everyone happy."

Glad you found them! There are a lot of pockets of birds up there, but there are also a lot of birdless areas. Glad you found a few!

jwettelrin89: "

gravelroad: "I've made three "attempts" at bear:


2019: 2019 BWCAW Traditional Archery Bowhunt


2020: Planned and packed to go but Covid-19 pandemic flared up and things got crazy in the run-up to the election. Had two partners cancel at last minute. Packed to go solo and pulled the plug when the weather turned nasty.


2021: Brought a new hunter who wasn't thrilled with the lack of deer sign and ended the hunt early for his sake.


Yep, I'm certifiable – same thing on tap for this fall. Only an outbreak of plague will keep me home this time. "

I've never seen bear in the bwca and only ever saw one deer, but it was a nice 8 pt. I think I have seen more Moose and Wolf tracks on portages than deer. I'm not sure the population is very high, but if you can find one good on you! It would certainly be something to brag about! So would portaging it out! Good luck!


Maybe the recent fire areas would be a good place to start? You could see a lot further and the deer like the fresh undergrowth that thrives after the fires. Maybe setting up on the edge of the old forest and a burn area? Full disclosure - I have no idea, but that would probably where I would start. "

The 2019 hunt was along the shore of Isabella. We discovered that the Pagami Creek burn is impassable to humans and deer. If you look at the maps for individual wolf pack areas, you'll see that they are avoiding it as well, undoubtedly because they have found the pickings slim as well. The edges would have indeed been a better idea.

Bears are easier to find – just watch for the reports of trouble here and elsewhere. :-)

gravelroad: "

jwettelrin89: "

gravelroad: "I've made three "attempts" at bear:



2019: 2019 BWCAW Traditional Archery Bowhunt



2020: Planned and packed to go but Covid-19 pandemic flared up and things got crazy in the run-up to the election. Had two partners cancel at last minute. Packed to go solo and pulled the plug when the weather turned nasty.



2021: Brought a new hunter who wasn't thrilled with the lack of deer sign and ended the hunt early for his sake.



Yep, I'm certifiable – same thing on tap for this fall. Only an outbreak of plague will keep me home this time. "

I've never seen bear in the bwca and only ever saw one deer, but it was a nice 8 pt. I think I have seen more Moose and Wolf tracks on portages than deer. I'm not sure the population is very high, but if you can find one good on you! It would certainly be something to brag about! So would portaging it out! Good luck!



Maybe the recent fire areas would be a good place to start? You could see a lot further and the deer like the fresh undergrowth that thrives after the fires. Maybe setting up on the edge of the old forest and a burn area? Full disclosure - I have no idea, but that would probably where I would start. "

The 2019 hunt was along the shore of Isabella. We discovered that the Pagami Creek burn is impassable to humans and deer. If you look at the maps for individual wolf pack areas, you'll see that they are avoiding it as well, undoubtedly because they have found the pickings slim as well. The edges would have indeed been a better idea.


Bears are easier to find – just watch for the reports of trouble here and elsewhere. :-)
"

I never considered how thick the undergrowth was in the recent burn areas. Maybe it would be more clear if you hunted it within a year or two of the burn? Shows what I know about deer hunting. Do you use satellite to try to find any particular type of structure? I usually see a bunch of deer around ely when i'm driving in/out of the bwca. I wonder if lakes closer to town have more deer? Maybe they are well fed off the bird feeders?

The only deer I ever saw was about 200 yards west of the table rock camp site on crooked lake and it swam into canada. It was a nice 8 pt, but i'm guessing that's a lot farther than you want to be to portage a deer out?

jwettelrin89: "I never considered how thick the undergrowth was in the recent burn areas. Maybe it would be more clear if you hunted it within a year or two of the burn? Shows what I know about deer hunting. Do you use satellite to try to find any particular type of structure? I usually see a bunch of deer around ely when i'm driving in/out of the bwca. I wonder if lakes closer to town have more deer? Maybe they are well fed off the bird feeders?

The only deer I ever saw was about 200 yards west of the table rock camp site on crooked lake and it swam into canada. It was a nice 8 pt, but i'm guessing that's a lot farther than you want to be to portage a deer out? "

The issue in the burn area is downed timber, not undergrowth. Anything taller than a raccoon will be worried about getting trapped in front of a pack of wolves (deer) or having to activate an inReach device (yours truly).

Most of the successful BWCA (and pseudo-BWCA) deer hunting is done out of Ely and the Echo Trail. The deer population in the eastern half is significantly smaller than it has been at times in the past.

Deer in the BWCA are close to 80 years low. Tough hunting and then some.