What is your method for scouting out fish in the BWCA on a lake you don't already know?

Troll with an original 4” silver Rapala. That lure usually finds them. Another thing I try to do is find an underwater map of the lake. I look for humps, bumps, saddles, streams, reefs or anything else that looks fishy. Then I go to a USGS topo map and get the coordinates, and enter them into my Garmin Montana GPS. Another thing I will do is look at google earth map of the lake. You will be surprised how many sunken islands that you will see on google earth maps or underwater structure, but not on any maps. Then I will ask questions here about an unfamiliar lake, I get a lot intel from emailing members here. I also look at what people say in the map section here about a lake. Trip reports have gave me many tips on lakes. I also ask people here at wing nights for fishing a certain brook trout lake. Then there is YouTube videos of fishing a lake I pick up a location or two.

Edit, here is a picture of Clearwater Lake with 2 underwater reefs as an example. To me they say fish here.

1 MNDNR lakefinder at home
2 search function on this website
3 depth maps
4 Eyeball it when I get there. Look for areas with combinations of structural elements, like moving water near a drop-off, for example.
5 start shallow as shallow fish are active fish. Sometimes the sonar will show fish deep, but they aren't biters. Shallow fish you might not mark, but you'll catch.

weeds adjacent to deeper water always have fish nearby, so I look for that

Fish need cover, oxygen, and food: if the needs are met, they hit the net. ;0

I’m a base camp fisherman, and almost always fish one lake for my entire week or two week trip. I will occasionally do day trips to other lakes, but not every trip. I will start fishing immediately when I leave my camp.

I like to camp on islands, so I will start on the first main break line and slow troll around the entire island. If that is not productive, I will then do the same thing on the second break line. A depth finder is a must for me, my eyes are constantly on the unit. To me it’s the most important piece of gear I take on my trips.

No matter what time of year, I’m always looking for sunken reefs or rocks that are out in the main lake basin, Some reefs may top out at just a couple feet below the surface and some may be in the 20 feet range. As long as there is deep water in close proximity, they will be fish magnets.

I target walleye and lake trout, but I have boated many trophy smallmouth and northerns in my pursuit of walleye and lakers. To me, structure and current is the key to successful walleye fishing, although there are certain times when I find the walleyes in the weeds. Never overlook seedbeds in the 10 to 20 feet range, or any areas that have some current.

As far as finding Lakers, that can be a crapshoot. My first trip of the season is usually early July. I’ve had great success trolling or jigging in main lake basins in the 60 to 100 feet of water, but the key here is to make sure there is some type of structure fairly close by. When I say close, I mean within several hundred yards. After some practice, you will always be on the lookout for “fishy “ looking areas, and you will just know what areas have the best chance of success.

walllee: "
No matter what time of year, I’m always looking for sunken reefs or rocks that are out in the main lake basin, Some reefs may top out at just a couple feet below the surface and some may be in the 20 feet range. As long as there is deep water in close proximity, they will be fish magnets."

...no matter what time of year... other than May. Cold, mid-lake reefs can be the Dead Sea in spring.

lundojam: "1 MNDNR lakefinder at home
2 search function on this website
3 depth maps
4 Eyeball it when I get there. Look for areas with combinations of structural elements, like moving water near a drop-off, for example.
5 start shallow as shallow fish are active fish. Sometimes the sonar will show fish deep, but they aren't biters. Shallow fish you might not mark, but you'll catch.


weeds adjacent to deeper water always have fish nearby, so I look for that


Fish need cover, oxygen, and food: if the needs are met, they hit the net. ;0"

What he said...

Fishing the weedbeds in 10 to 20 feet of water only applies to clear water lakes. In the bog stained waters of the Kawishiwi drainage, weeds don't grow in water more than about 6 feet deep. I have dived a bit in those lakes and at 12 feet it is getting pretty dim and at 15 feet it is dark. In those dark colored water lakes you need to fish the edge of the weedbeds at about 7 feet of water.

bobbernumber3: "

walllee: "
No matter what time of year, I’m always looking for sunken reefs or rocks that are out in the main lake basin, Some reefs may top out at just a couple feet below the surface and some may be in the 20 feet range. As long as there is deep water in close proximity, they will be fish magnets."

...no matter what time of year... other than May. Cold, mid-lake reefs can be the Dead Sea in spring."

Agreed, I don’t trip until July.

Where does everyone find their depth maps? I have used MN DNR lakefinder, and looked at the navionics viewer. Any other sources that folks find helpful?

shouldertripper: "Where does everyone find their depth maps? I have used MN DNR lakefinder, and looked at the navionics viewer. Any other sources that folks find helpful?"

Navionics has good coverage for the BWCA, but very little for Quetico. Shortly after Garmin bought Navionics, Lowrance came out with their competing map service called CMAP(Genesis). CMAP does sell mapping, but they also have a user uploaded data map that they refer to as the social map. I have started logging sonar on my trips and uploaded some logs for Cirrus Lake in Quetico. I don't think you will find much else out there yet for Quetico, but it might be worth checking periodically to see what others might upload. Their social mapping is free, but you do need to setup a login to view and download maps(free).

CMAP Genesis Social Map


Also there are a few depth maps that you can view on this website, though I have found some inaccuracies with the data. I would say it is good for general reference, but a lot of the detailed structure shown, does not exist in my experience and some structure that exists is not shown.

gpsnauticalcharts.com

airmorse: "

lundojam: "1 MNDNR lakefinder at home
2 search function on this website
3 depth maps
4 Eyeball it when I get there. Look for areas with combinations of structural elements, like moving water near a drop-off, for example.
5 start shallow as shallow fish are active fish. Sometimes the sonar will show fish deep, but they aren't biters. Shallow fish you might not mark, but you'll catch.



weeds adjacent to deeper water always have fish nearby, so I look for that



Fish need cover, oxygen, and food: if the needs are met, they hit the net. ;0"

What he said..."

Yep