I thought we could try and keep a running report like we did last year. Please share if you can any fishing reports from the Boundary Waters and Quetico.

What species are you catching?
What are they biting on? ( lures\live bait )
What type of area? ( shoreline, reefs, points, moving water, etc….)
Water temps if you have a reading?
Water levels? ( low, average, high )
Size of the lake? ( small, medium, large )
Time of day if there is a particular time that is better than most?
Date you were fishing?

And any other pertinent information you would like to share

Saturday Evening (05/14) - Day Permit into a Brookie Lake

Arrived at the Lake at about 530-600ish and fished until sunset.

Species - Brook Trout
Lure - Vibrax Inline Spinner
Area - Shaded shoreline on west side of lake around submerged timber
Lake levels - up slightly, but not significantly
Lake size - Small
Time of day - Evening
Date - 05/14

Kept a couple for a late dinner.

Speckled: "Saturday Evening (05/14) - Day Permit into a Brookie Lake


Arrived at the Lake at about 530-600ish and fished until sunset.


Species - Brook Trout
Lure - Vibrax Inline Spinner
Area - Shaded shoreline on west side of lake around submerged timber
Lake levels - up slightly, but not significantly
Lake size - Small
Time of day - Evening
Date - 05/14"

Thanks for the detailed report! Looking forward to hearing others as the season moves along!

AmarilloJim: " "

I don't want people to post what lake they are fishing, just where on the lake they are fishing, like structures, points, saddles, moving water, etc.... If you want to lie about the lake name, then that's fine....LOL. :)

Went Brookie fishing on opener and caught a lot but not much with any size. I trolled a gold little Cleo and caught most on that. I also used a jointed Rapala and caught a few that way as well. Water temps were 50-52 degrees and I caught most fish in 15 feet or less.

Just returned from a fishing trip in the BW to lake very near Ely. Even after the sever cold front - we crushed the Eyes shorefishing with slips in 5-9 FOW. Leeches. 75 fish day yday for 4. High water does make them harder to find in classic areas (current-- tough to find non flooded channel)
but think shallow and wind blown /////
Water temp was 52-54F but Iam sure it cooled down yday and today to around 5O/. yday too windy (or to good fishing from shore= and today we left. Focus shallow and wind blowen -- especially shallow....

Saturday Evening (05/21) - Day Permit into Little Gabbro

Went in late afternoon and fished into the evening. We were after walleye, but caught mostly smallish northerns. The catch was 5 northern and one small walleye. All were released.

Species - Northern/Walleye
Lure - Lindy Rig
Area - Shoreline and Islands with current
Lake levels - High
Time of day - Evening
Date - 05/21

Lots of current between L Gabbro and Gabbro. Someone swamped there. The boat behind the rear seat looked completely trashed.

A few pics from trip from 18-22nd

Day Permit

We hit the water a little before 6AM, were done fishing by 8AM. Northern was released. Walleye between 14-20 were kept for the frying pan.

Species - Walleye & one big Northern (mid to high teens for weight)
Lure - Lindy Rig
Area - Windward Shoreline (6-10ft water)
Lake levels - up slightly, but not significantly
Lake size - Medium
Time of day - Early Morning
Date - 05/29

Friday May 27; Mountain Lake; Lake Trout; Spoons (Fire Tiger) and Raps (Fire Tiger). We arrive to campsite Thursday evening after entering through Daniels. Friday was sunny with light wind. Trolled until first one was caught on Fire Tiger spoon. Used Fire Tiger Rapala casting into slight breeze near points. They were caught in 15-20 ft. Caught our limit and they tasted GREAT!!

5 day trip to a large body of water on gunflint side. Water temp May 26 was 48 degrees. Temp on May 30 was 53. Walleye tough to find initially, only caught males, most still milking. Found in 10-15 ft of water. Warmest water had the best results.

SMB started in 10-15 fow, but as water warmed found in less than 5ft.

Best lure was leech on plain hook. Shad color soft plastics worked well when water warmed.

Evening outperformed other times of day.

Fishman53: "Friday May 27; Mountain Lake; Lake Trout; Spoons (Fire Tiger) and Raps (Fire Tiger). We arrive to campsite Thursday evening after entering through Daniels. Friday was sunny with light wind. Trolled until first one was caught on Fire Tiger spoon. Used Fire Tiger Rapala casting into slight breeze near points. They were caught in 15-20 ft. Caught our limit and they tasted GREAT!!"

Forgot to add pic.

The four of us caught walleyes.
Bobber hook and minnow, jig and minnow.
In a bay of stained water next to the reeds.
Water levels very high.
Large lake on Canadian border.
We fished all day to some degree, late morning seemed best.
We all had a good time. One fish fry. We all had a limit of walleyes to bring home.

DATES: 4 night trip, May 22 thru 27th

SIZE: Medium Lake, water levels high, west of Ely,

Species:
Bug hatches started happening mid trip, early part of trip had zero bugs!
Walleye towards dusk and evening by tips of shallow bays and inside those bays.
Depth 6 to 12 ft mainly. At night a few in very shallow by inlets.
Biggest were 19 and 20 inch with a good number 17's and many 15's.
Smallies were hitting all day in 4 to 15 foot. Off points and boulder reefs.
Biggest Smallie was close to 18" and many more around 16 and 15 in size.
Had our normal fun filled early season trip with normal fishing success!

LURES:
Money Lure this trip was a Rapala XRap size XR-8, rusty crayfish color was best.
Also had Clown, and Perch color which also worked until bitten off.
Caught both Smallies and Walleye on this lure.
I won't go into the BWCAW again without more XRaps early season.
Huskey Jerks were also working a bit with FireTiger, and a brown shiner Shadow Rap Shad 09 caught the biggest night time walleye.
First walleye was caught on gold bladed Zman jig head with 4" Walleye Assassin Sexy Shad.

Inserting GULP in place of soft plastics wasn't working for me.
Jerk Stick baits worked best, even with trolling.

Time of Day:
Dusk was the best time for fishing success.
Never tried early mornings.

Walleye Nation Creations Shaky Shad Crankbait - Red Craw also worked okay this past trip.

Saturday Evening (06/04) - Day Permit - River

Arrived at the River about 6AM. Was looking far Walleye - caught Northern.

Species - Northern
Lure - Lindy Rig and Minnow / Jig and Minnow
Area - River Shoreline and areas of current
Lake levels - up slightly, but not significantly
Lake size - River
Time of day - Morning
Date - 06/04

Trolled for Walleye, picked up plenty of pike between 2 and 4 lbs. Nothing big. No eyes were found.

QueticoMike: "I thought we could try and keep a running report like we did last year. Please share if you can any fishing reports from the Boundary Waters and Quetico.

What species are you catching?
What are they biting on? ( lures\live bait )
What type of area? ( shoreline, reefs, points, moving water, etc….)
Water temps if you have a reading?
Water levels? ( low, average, high )
Size of the lake? ( small, medium, large )
Time of day if there is a particular time that is better than most?
Date you were fishing?

And any other pertinent information you would like to share"

Thank you for starting the 2022 report.

What species: Lake Trout
What are they biting on: Spoons. Mostly silver but really any color spoon was working. I had no luck with diving lures.
What type of area: majority was casting from shoreline but also trolling visible rocky drop-offs
Water levels? seemed high
Size of the lake? Gillis Lake is large
Time of day if there is a particular time that is better than most: We had most luck afternoon and evening but also caught some during morning and trolling during day
Date you were fishing: June 2-4, 2022

Fished Gun (one just W of 4-town- pretty hard from June 2 - the 4th. Water temp was 57-59. Winds made things tough in a canoe with my 16 year old son, so eighty percent of fishing was from shore but we tried from islands etc. Leeches to my surprise were a dud for every species. Bass and Northern (small- from shore casting shad raps or plastic minnows/ jigs. Slip bobbing from shore at camp was joke- couldn't get deep enough for walleye bite. Finally last night off an extended reef point found and caught several walleye in the 14" range in 15-16 FOW. 1/4oz jig and minnow plastic.

A total change from a previous visit 2 weeks ago -- but to a much different lake with water clarity much different. Just another data point to add to the archives.

Northern Quetico, May 23-30, large and medium lakes - everything 2-4 feet high.
Caught lots Walleye, Northern, Lakers and SM. Did a lot of trolling and some shore fishing. Eaters caught, and some big ones (one notable laker, two big smallmouth and two pike in the high 30's). Ate fish every day save one big travel day. Skunked at one campsite but did well at every other one.
Everything was taking size 12 Husky Jerks, and we rarely changed. One of us threw a spoon for a while and he caught fish too. Had everything to jig and never broke it out.
Some aspects were odd - Sturgeon Narrows, for example - caught nothing. Caught fish of several species over what is normally dry land. One guy caught a nice walleye in a flood plain, probably 100m inland!
No one is going to accuse us of being accomplished fisherfolk, but I think for all of us it was our best fishing experience ever.

Just got back.

Caught walleye all day long on leeches with jigs and also on plastics. Low light conditions found them a bit shallower.
Water temp in mid 50's.
Water level was high, wind made it hard from time to time.
Looked for moving water but found bigger walleye off in other places that seemed out of the way.

Got one big northern and a few scattered bass. Also with the bass, we got "bed hits" that indicated they were perhaps picking up our worms but not eating them.

We fished mostly for smallmouth. A little for walleye.
Most productive lure for SMB was the green pumpkin tube
Most productive for walleye were suspending jerk baits.
Heard many people saying they were catching many eyes with minnows.
Most productive area was fast moving water at the end of a year flowing into lake.
Water temperatures felt well below normal.
Water levels were the highest I had ever seen.
Medium sized lake and river.
The best bite was the afternoon. Almost nothing in the morning.
Fished end of May to early June.

Just returned from an 8 day trip - Crooked Lake Loop - entered at Mudro, thru Horse River to Lower Basswood Falls, up thru Crooked, down thru Friday Bay, and finally exited from Fourtown back to Mudro entry point.

Stayed one night around LBF at the lower site adjacent to the Falls and caught plenty of smallmouth and walleye right at the falls fishing from shore. Fish were caught using leeches and slip bobbers. I would have been happy just staying here all week as we did extremely well in the short time we spent there.

Spent 2 nights on Crooked east of Big/Little Current and fishing was much tougher. Caught lots of pike and smallmouth but the walleyes were tougher to locate.

Also, spent 3 nights in the Bear Trap/Thunder Lake areas and that is where we found our best walleye fishing of the trip. Leeches and bobbers from camp performed well and provided 3 easy shore lunches. We also bumped into a spot where we were catching 10-15 walleyes a night (between 7-8pm) casting rapala husky jerks. It was some of the fastest, easiest, and consistent walleye fishing I have seen in the BWCA in all my trips. You could literally set your watch by them. Most walleyes were 15-20" but we did get a few closer to 24".

Fun trip and can't wait to get back!

June 12-18
LLC

Walleye - good early in the week then disappeared…probably moving on out. Typical rocky points on the usual soft plastics but more shallow than expected(<10’). Very few on hardbaits. Several in that 25” range.

Smallmouth - with the high water, most were still tight to the rocks. Did not catch any we thought were on bed. Not a single smallie in the flooded grass. Swim baits, soft plastics and spinner baits(especially in the wind) dominated. Very few on top water.

Pike - seemed to be near the flooded grass in the bays but not a bunch actually in it. Whopper plopper and spinner baits accounted for the 30”+ fish.

Generally speaking…wind was your friend. Find rocks that wind was either pushing water into them or rocks/points that created a current seam. Natural colors seemed to produce better than your loud choices.

walleyejunky: "Just returned from an 8 day trip - Crooked Lake Loop - entered at Mudro, thru Horse River to Lower Basswood Falls, up thru Crooked, down thru Friday Bay, and finally exited from Fourtown back to Mudro entry point.


Stayed one night around LBF at the lower site adjacent to the Falls and caught plenty of smallmouth and walleye right at the falls fishing from shore. Fish were caught using leeches and slip bobbers. I would have been happy just staying here all week as we did extremely well in the short time we spent there.


Spent 2 nights on Crooked east of Big/Little Current and fishing was much tougher. Caught lots of pike and smallmouth but the walleyes were tougher to locate.


Also, spent 3 nights in the Bear Trap/Thunder Lake areas and that is where we found our best walleye fishing of the trip. Leeches and bobbers from camp performed well and provided 3 easy shore lunches. We also bumped into a spot where we were catching 10-15 walleyes a night (between 7-8pm) casting rapala husky jerks. It was some of the fastest, easiest, and consistent walleye fishing I have seen in the BWCA in all my trips. You could literally set your watch by them. Most walleyes were 15-20" but we did get a few closer to 24".



Fun trip and can't wait to get back! "

Thanks for sharing! Sounds like a good trip!

Fished ely side 6/13 - 6/15, gunflint side 6/16 - 6/18. Lakes covered include Little Long, Basswood, Shagawa, Saganaga, Gunflint, and Magnetic. Overall fishing for us was on the slow side. Did horribly on basswood. Ely water temps for 60-65 on the surface. GF side ranged from 53 on the southern shore of Gunflint to 60 in some bays on Sag.

We are typically targeting lake trout in the Bwca area, this year we tried to diversify. Numbers were not great but we did manage 6 species —- perch, rock bass, smb, pike, walleye, and lake trout. Best walleye 17, best laker 22, best pike 30, best smb 18.

Walleyes were caught pretty shallow next to islands and points. Leech under a float 6-8 feet. Little Cleo cast to island shoreline.

Smallmouth near running water— I had a 3 cast 3 fish stretch that was fun on Magnetic. Flicker Shad was hot.

Pike are everywhere, caught from 4 feet in shallow bays to 20 feet trolling. Jointed raps, flicker shads, little Cleos. I had a nice one follow my Cleo right up to the boat on sag. When I saw the fish I paused my retrieve, gave it a little jerk and he hit it right there and took off. That was a blast!

Lake trout were our most productive fish which is not surprising given the time we’ve spent targeting them the past 5 years or so. Despite surface temps being 53-57 they were not up shallow. We started trolling a spread at 10, 20, and 30 feet and pretty quickly narrowed the strike zone down to 15-25 feet, often over water 30-50 feet deep. With the cold water we found fishing slow was essential. We had most success at 1-1.2 mph. In the past we’ve done well at twice that speed. Our most successful bait was a fire tiger reef runner trolled around 15-18 feet deep but we also caught lakers on a gold doctor spoon and purple flash tail dancer. Kept a couple in the high teens for a grilled trout dinner on our last night.

Smallies were plenty, large, and extremely shallow the last few days. Put in at Sawbill and bounced around the area for 3 days. I caught 30+ smallmouth each day with many in the 4lb class and showing evidence of spawning. Popper and tube did all the damage from dirt shallow to 5 fow.

Caught some really nice eyes on the tube as well.

the walleye bite was excellent today. Caught them one white jig with leech and on Clackin Rap.

tube?

7/17 - 7/20. EP 47 and fishing was slow. Saw pockets of mayflies on water during our paddle in to Gaskin. We threw all we had to offer (spinners, Raps, spoons, plastics (paddle tails/mister twister) and slip bobber with leeches with little success. Decided to move into a different area on 7/20 and during paddle out caught smallmouth while trolling. On day permit out of EP 62 we made it to more familiar waters and caught walleye, pike and smallmouth. Not sure what the issue was initially, we had rain at night on 7/17 and 7/18. Could have been weather, recent mayfly hatch or our unfamiliarity with that area. Regardless, EP 47 area was very nice and the Rockwood guys do not disappoint. Same to be said of the folks at Clearwater!

Quetico was on fire two weeks ago. Found Walleyes in the cabbage, Lakers in 70 feet, and Northerns and Bass just about everywhere.

Anybody have any recent fishing reports from the past 3 weeks?

EP 23 to Gull Lake- 8/16-8/20
Gull- Good smallmouth action on topwater most days. Whopper Plopper, KVD wakebait, and Pop-R were all good. We got a few walleye, slip bobber, spinner harnesses, and even one on a topwater.

Day trip to Beartrap- Flat, warm, sunny conditions made walleye tough, got four nice ones midday after the breeze picked up and clouds moved in.

Gun- On our travel out day we got a couple smallies on topwater while paddling through.

I couldn’t find any leeches so I used worms and caught many walleye using a pink jig. I also trolled with a jointed flicker shad and caught many walleye too in 10 ft.

We were out on Insula this past week. Fishing was pretty decent. Weather was mid seventies during the day and around 60 at night with the least amount of wind I've ever had on a trip. A couple of rain showers drifted around us later in the week. I don't know what the water temp was, but I would say it was pretty avg for August.

Walleye's- Reefs and points first thing in the morning. Fish were moving up to about 10' and pretty active for about an hour. Caught them on jigs with a white twister or imitation leech. Orange/chartreuse jig head colors seemed to be the best, but just about any color worked. Around 6:30 to 7:00 the walleye's would start moving deeper and the bite would slow down as the fish spread out. You could still find them, but were much more spread out. Night bite was about the same, maybe just slightly deeper (12'-15'). From late morning to early afternoon, if we were on the water we tried about everything we had with, but trolling our deepest running crankbaits over 25' to 45' bottom, we picked up some nice fish. Perch colored cranks were working well. We tried some channels that normally funnel fish, but kept coming up empty. The wind was light though, so we'd head back out to deep water and find a reef. I was able to finally fish many reefs in deep water, that in past years I couldn't because of too much wind. We carry and use drift socks, but some of the reefs are in to big of water when it's windy. Not this year. We pulled up on a new to us reef on our first morning, within the first minute all 4 of us were hooked up with eater walleyes. It pays to scour the contour maps looking for fish holding spots (and happy to say I found this one on my own and didn't read or hear about it from someone else).

Smallmouth-
There's smallmouth everywhere on Insula. Topwater worked all day, but obviously better morning and night. Picked some up in the rivers around Insula. Caught some while walleye fishing. Topwater is our favorite way to catch smallmouth, so we probably throw that more than we should. But if they're biting, why stop.

Pike-
There's pike everywhere on Insula. I hate fishing with a leader, besides from trolling. So I lost many topwater frogs, jigs and other baits to the toothy slimy critters. But if they didn't bite me off, we caught them all day, everyday fishing for smallmouth and walleye.

I'll probably never have a week with less wind than last week. The bowman was happy that he only had to deploy the drift sock for a few hours over the whole trip, considering we almost always have to use it in past years. We also take two marker bouys to throw out when we find a hot spot. It definitely helps to keep finding the structure that's holding fish. It's crazy how a boats length off the spot and no bites, move back and boom, fish on.

Few photos from the trip. We didn't catch any monsters, but we sure caught a bunch and had a good time.

Went back to Quetico a couple weeks ago. Fishing was fantastic. had my grand slam in less then a hour, with a 49 inch Northern in the mix. Walleyes we’re in 15 to 20 foot depths, Lakers were caught at 70feet, although I did catch one in 25 feet fishing for Walleyes. Smallmouth and Northerns were everywhere…

walllee: "Went back to Quetico a couple weeks ago. Fishing was fantastic. had my grand slam in less then a hour, with a 49 inch Northern in the mix. Walleyes we’re in 15 to 20 foot depths, Lakers were caught at 70feet, although I did catch one in 25 feet fishing for Walleyes. Smallmouth and Northerns were everywhere… "

49 incher! That's a monster pike! Well done! Thanks everyone you contributes to this thread each year.

I was a solo trip from 8/25 until 8/31, doing a base camping trip. First days i couldn't find a smallmouth over 15 inches. Caught one big pike in the mid 30s (inches) on a green watermelon tube. I threw poppers, wake baits, spooks, chuggers, torpedoes, and they just weren't hitting. I had a couple of whopper ploppers back at camp and I broke them out on the 3rd day and found out that was what they wanted on topwater.

My biggest smallmouth came on the ZMAN scented jerk ShadZ, using my Zulu rig. I had my drag locked down pretty tight, but this fish made my drag scream when I hooked her, Then she paused for second and did it again. Thought for sure it was a big pike until it started to do some head shaking, then I started thinking big smallmouth,

So most of my smallmouth were either on the WP on topwater or ZMAN ShadZ subsurface. Fished mostly around moving water when I could. Water levels still seemed to be a foot or two higher than normal,

Only caught 3 walleye, but I wasn't trying to catch them. All caught on the ShadZ in moving water.

The bite seemed pretty consistent after the first couple of days. I will post some smallmouth pictures in a different thread.

Spent the previous four days on Lake One. The Northern Pike were actively bumping and biting Rapala and Bomber diving/rattling lures in color schemes white/red, white/silver/blue, and pink/purple. All while trolling and actively casting. In water depths of 19-23' we marked multiple fish one to two feet off the bottom with minimal response to leaches and plastics. The trolling along steep dropoffs and boulders/humps saw the most activity. The pike were suspended in the 12' to 16' range. They were following lures and one struck on a figure-eight!

Another team in our crew caught Small Mouth using worms and leaches next to rock cliffs/outcroppings. We brought in a Garmin Striker 5CV and rod holders for the "Duffer" and the Stern paddler also had a planer board. We did not portage and intentionally went in "heavy." The laughing at the entry point was good and everyone was friendly! Especially after learning we were not going too far. We have done the 50-mile loops in a week but now was time to slow down and fish.

Two 12 V, 12 AH sealed batteries fit inside a plastic "30 Cal Ammo Can" was secured to the thwart and leads passed through a sealed hole to power the fish finder. Worked slick and kept the kid busy when the fish were not active.

Good luck to the next group of anglers up there!

Im going in on lake one with the wife on thursday. Probably going to camp on lake 3 on one of the islands. Any advice for catching fish? Are there decent sized panfish at all? Or should i just look for bigger fish?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Early morning, 9/19, caught off the north shore of small lake in the Gunflint area with a Panther Martin.



My first brookie and I'm hooked. Thank you all for sharing your knowledge.

Came out on the 25th. Found Walleyes in 20 to 25 feet. Also, the bigger smallmouth and Northerns were also caught in those depths. Drifting, and very slow trolling seemed to be the best method for me. It was a pretty light bite most of the week, I really had to pay attention to the end of the rod, and the line to catch some of the Walleyes. 1/4 and 1/2 jugs tipped with a 4” white or orange double twister tail was what seemed to work the best.

Happy girl!

Beautiful colors in the woods, and on the fish.

TuscaroraBorealis: " Happy girl!


Beautiful colors in the woods, and on the fish."

That's awesome! Great picture!

Thanks to everyone who shared a fishing report this year! Looking forward to next year already! Tight lines to you all!

Telco: "Early morning, 9/19, caught off the north shore of small lake in the Gunflint area with a Panther Martin.



My first brookie and I'm hooked. Thank you all for sharing your knowledge. "

Gorgeous!

Speckled: "Saturday Evening (05/14) - Day Permit into a Brookie Lake


Arrived at the Lake at about 530-600ish and fished until sunset.


Species - Brook Trout
Lure - Vibrax Inline Spinner
Area - Shaded shoreline on west side of lake around submerged timber
Lake levels - up slightly, but not significantly
Lake size - Small
Time of day - Evening
Date - 05/14

Kept a couple for a late dinner.
Bottom fish , look like a splake not a Square tail

Species - Brook Trout
Lure - Swedish Pimple with salted minnow
Area - Rocky shoreline on west side of lake
Lake levels - A foot a snow on top of 2.5 feet of ice.
Lake size - Small
Time of day - Late midday
Date - 02/17

For our annual three day winter excursion I thought I'd try something new and fish for brook trout through the ice. Having no ice fishing experience, my research consisted of watching a short video made by Andy at Tuscarora Outfitters. I kept my expectations low. After hiking in and setting up camp I drilled one hole, fished for 30 minutes and it was time to start making dinner (that's when I remembered to take a photo). A wonderful experience that I hope to repeat every winter. And thank you for the tutorial video, Andy!