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01/24/2023 10:50AM  
Long time lurker here but finally made an account to post this. My buddies and I do an annual BWCA trip, camping at the CCO site on the south side of Moose and motoring the chain via day use permits for two full days. Not a long trip, I know. Our group doesn't have a great attention span or the drive to rough it (which I detest, but I digress). We've been fishing for years and years, but I'd still consider us rookies because I don't feel like we know what we're doing. Our trip this year is mid-July. We've been up pretty much every week from late may to early July, but this will be the latest in the summer we're going up.

We normally start out by fishing the south bay and flowage of Moose, targeting northern pike. We have good luck on fish under 25" using silver and blue cranks, mostly shad raps or ripple shads, and occasionally with offset spinners. I've never had any luck on spoons or inline spinners, but I try every year. I'm getting kind of tired of catching these smaller fish, although the fight is always fun. We're okay at targeting SMBs with topwater cranks casting towards the shore. We usually catch a few really nice ones every year. What we're really bad at is walleyes. We've been doing this same exact trip for over 10 years and we caught our second and third walleye as a group (!!) in 2022. I believe my buddy used some orange inline spinner with a single hook and a worm.

I know this chain is great for walleyes but we can't figure out what we're doing wrong, other than not being knowledgeable enough. I figured more research is key, so I come to y'all asking for advice:

- How do we catch more walleye? We've targeted the points mentioned numerous times in this forum, like the points off boy scout island when the wind is coming from the S/W, south of the small island in the back bay of Moose. Near the newfound flowage. We're usually just jigging worms, which we've been told is a fine way to catch them. I use the lightest tackle possible, but the other guys like to use steel leaders on heavy braid for all applications, which drives me nuts. But either way doesn't seem to work for us.

- How do we catch bigger pike in this chain? I grabbed our biggest one at around 32" a few years ago, off of a Strike Pro Hunchback (easily our most successful crank. If there's a topwater bite, this bait seems to be reliable at generating bites). Over the past year or so, I've been getting into soft plastics fishing locally, but I have no idea how they translate to the BWCA. Our first year, I did have something big on a heavy line with a big sucker floated off the bottom near the flowage from Splash Lake into Newfound, but it broke my line. Also had a big pike over there rip a smallmouth off my line. And we've heard of people catching 40" pike out that way, pretty much every year, but we've never been able to catch them. I've had a few 40" pike and muskie out of both the twin cities area and even in Des Moines, but I can't seem to grab big pike out of the BWCA.

- We want to go into Basswood this year. Seems like this forum is a fan of Back Bay for big pike, with spots for walleye along the way. Planning on getting the Moose-Basswood permit tomorrow for this. Would anyone give insight on travel time from Moose to Back bay via 25hp motor?

I appreciate any tips. Thanks!
 
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illini79ps
senior member (61)senior membersenior member
  
01/24/2023 11:45AM  
Saying the Moose Chain is fertile walleye ground is a bit erroneous. Walleye thrive when they have shallow sandy or gravelly flats/bays with extensive weed coverage (and lots of oxygen and baitfish) they can spawn in early in the ice out timeframe. Lots of Moose, Newfound, and Sucker are deep and rocky low O2 bath tubs. Southpool at Moose is the exception but it gets lots of pressure all year since its not in the BWCA.

Big northerns abound in summer near deeper weed edges where there are perch and small bass to eat, or near deeper humps where they can eat a few walleye. Use your sonar to ID mutliple decent shapes near the bottom and then start casting bright big things (spinner baits, husky jerks, even spoons) into open water nearby. You can find a few shallow/weedy as well, but the ratio of snakes/hammers to anything good is not ideal. Super shallow pockets with weeds, reeds and pads usually have panfish and one apex predator all summer, but getting the big 'un before a 21 inch snake bites off your lure is a challenge!

Walleye are fairly easy to catch once you find them. If you are out on Basswood middays, check your sonar around various humps and deeper points, watch for clusters of Loons diving (baitballs or perch schools close by). If you catch a decent sized SMB, there are probably a few walleye 10-15 ft. deeper nearby. Also, follow and watch Tom Boley on YT. He is fishing near Hayward, WI but does go to MN lakes as well. Great techniques for year around, just check date posted.

As for Back Bay, it takes an hour if the wait is short at Prairie Portage.
 
cyclones30
distinguished member(4163)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberpower member
  
01/24/2023 12:33PM  
I agree with watching some videos from people in the region, tons of good ones.

But if I had to catch walleyes and my life depended on it, it would be leech on a hook under a slip bobber. (in the right areas of course) Tons of slip bobber info here and elsewhere but if you think you're in the right area, this will tell you if they're down there.
 
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