Been a while since I posted. We're going into McAree May 18 for 6 days. Suggestions for other lakes in the vicinity to try? I know the Ontario walleye season opens on May 20. We fished McAree for half a day back in 2018; I got a same day/same lake grand slam there. Will try to do that again!

Is there a certain species you are targeting? Wicksteed is a scenic lake and the Pike fishing is fun. Darkwater for Grand Slam. Argo for Trout. Brent is one of my favorite Grand Slam Lakes. In all honesty, you could spend all 6 days on McAree!

Thanks for the response! We'll be fishing mostly trout, other species as we have time. I really enjoyed Darky (aka Darkwater?) on the day trip we made there from Argo back in 2018. We only caught trout there, but we did very well. Better average size fish than on Argo, by quite a bit, which pleasantly surprised us. Loved the pictographs there.

Are Pond, Pulling, and Dahlin worth the trip? I know big lakes = big fish, but if the spring is very late the small lakes may be warmer.

In May around opener I find fishing good in the following areas:

Base of Rebecca Falls on McAree for Walleye.

Base of Curtain Falls and various bays close by on Iron Lake.

On Crooked, the bays on the north shore between Curtain Falls and the Western portage into Argo - good for all three fish (W/N/SMB).

Roland Lake for Lake Trout.

Siobahn River for Smallmouth - end closest to Roland.

Argo - Lake Trout - in particular, along the gravel wall to the north of the entrance to the Siobahn heading up towards the Darky portage.

Darky for Walleye and Lake Trout.

Ballard is great for Largemouth.

I've not had good luck on Pond but I heard others say its ok for Lake Trout.

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The area East of McAree, West of Argo, and North of Crooked was significantly burned in Sept/Oct 2021 -- all the way up to Darky and Wicksteed. Not sure what that says for all those smaller lakes in the area. Fishing should be fine but the campsites may be rough.

Great info! Thanks, plander. Good to know about the fire. I'll let you know how we do. I don't know yet if we will be base camping and day tripping or moving around a bit.

The image below is a classic fishing loop. All the darkened area inside and around the loop is marking the 2021 fire.

Thanks, plander! Looks like an amur pike in your profile pic

rpike: "Thanks, plander! Looks like an amur pike in your profile pic"

yep

plander: "

rpike: "Thanks, plander! Looks like an amur pike in your profile pic"

yep"

Story behind that?

rpike: "

plander: "

rpike: "Thanks, plander! Looks like an amur pike in your profile pic"

yep"

Story behind that?"

Yes please!

MichiganMan: "

rpike: "

plander: "

rpike: "Thanks, plander! Looks like an amur pike in your profile pic"

yep"

Story behind that?"

Yes please!"

I was living in Shanghai at the time and couldn't get to Quetico that year so decided to do a fishing trip in Mongolia with a buddy. That Pike was caught on the Onon River using an 8 wt rod/9 wt floating line and Clouser minnow. Also caught Taimen, Amur Trout, and Lenok using dry flies/terrestrials. That trip turned me on to fly fishing. Since then, I bring a fly rod to the BWCA/Q about 50% of the time. Nothing beats catching a SMB on the fly rod.

Now that's a fishing trip! Flyfishing from a canoe in Mongolia - because it was too hard to get to Quetico!!

We got back last week. We spent 3 nights on McAree and 3 on Iron at the top of Rebecca Falls. LOTS of water going over the falls!

Walleye fishing was outstanding in both McAree and Iron. Nothing very big, but we caught many. We caught them everywhere, too. The first one was on a shallow crankbait over 80' trolling for trout. We got one trout over very deep water and had a couple other hits. We got more trout in 10-25'. The biggest I estimate was 12#; no picture, unfortunately.

In one lunch spot, I got the grand slam all from shore. I got 3 trout (all between 5-7#), a walleye and a couple bass on a small tube jig. Got the pike on a kastmaster.

We did a day trip from Iron to Roland. Mostly Roland was slow, but the fish went absolutely nuts for about 45 minutes. We had trout hitting or chasing every cast, except when we caught a bass. The trout were mostly short-striking; we only landed two. Still, it was a hoot.

We gave up our lunch spot to Stu Osthoff and his party. They needed a place to camp on McAree. The bass and walleye fishing from that spot was crazy good.