Planning a trip in mid-July from Brule north to Omega across to Long Island and down to Sawbill. I'm interested in information about the fishing along that route or just general information about the route.

I saw that the road to the Brule Lake entry is under construction now until October. No alternative route is available and Cook county is saying delays of up to an hour so if you are launching there you may want to take that into account.

I'm planning a trip there in late August/early September. Hope it's mostly done by then with minimum delay!

A beautiful route for sure.

The portages from Omega to Kiskadina and Kiskadina to Muskeg are steep both up and down, the latter crossing the Laurential Divide. I was double portaging and broke up the K-M portage into three sections which I paced off pretty well.

You know you can just do a loop coming back to Brule from Cherokee through the Temperance lakes. Of course you would have another tangle with Laurentian Divide portages, but still a nice way out.

Fishing: Brule....your entry, good if you can stand the wind. The Cones...good smallie action. Winchell....NP and some LT but tough in July. Omega...never did good there. Long Island....NP and sporadic LT. Not a great fishing lake. Cherokee, I assume....not a great fishing lake. I like the idea of dropping from Cherokee down thru Temperance lakes...both decent fishing. Complete loop back to Brule. Pretty route but not a great fishing one. The Kisk to Muskeg portage is known as "the wall". Lucky your heavy load is downhill. If you do the loop, the Cherokee to Sitka portage to get to North Temperance is quite the goat path also.

Are you ending at Sawbill?

If yes, and if you have the time, from Cherokee Lake you should consider going down through the Temperance Lakes and Temperance River series (Weird, Jack, Kelly) and then the Fire Lake (Burnt and Smoke) back to Sawbill. It is a prettier paddle.

I remember the North Cone to Cliff Lake portage as a very rocky. Lots of care in foot placement is needed.

Arriving to Winchell Lake later in the day may be tricky with the winds. You may want to judge how far down the lake you want to get if you have white caps and/or the start of rollers on the west end.

Ogema Lake may be a better choice and have more open campsites than Winchell. The portage back to explore and fish Winchell may be easier in the long run than surfing down the lake in the afternoon blow.

Climb the cliffs of Winchell Lake for a nice view of the area.

You have already been warned about the "The Wall" in the portage between Kiskadinna and Muskeg. Don't under estimate this portage.

The portage between Muskeg Creek and Long Island Lake starts at the top of a huge beaver dam. It is rock garden all the way to LIL. The put in at LIL is also very rocky.

The two campsites on the eastern end of Long Island Lake are very nice. The island site is the better of the two, but the eastern most is also nice.

Do you have time for a walk on the beach? Instead of heading straight to Cherokee Lake, turn west on Gordon Lake and head to Frost Lake. There are several campsites with access to golden sand beaches. Some people think Frost is a better fishing lake than Cherokee as well. There is a nice population of moose in the Frost Lake area that you may get to see.

If you decide to head to the Temperance Lakes, the portage end on Cherokee Lake is a set of stairs to a staging area about 40" off the water. Depending on water levels, there is not much room to unload at the bottom of the stairs. You may need a rope to secure the canoe as you unload here.

If you decide to head from Cherokee straight to Sawbill, check with the Sawbill Outfitters about the status of the water levels on Ada Creek and how much portaging is required. Forewarned is forearmed here.

Staying on Sawbill is always a crap shoot. If you find an open site, grab it. The closer you get to the entry the less likely you are to get one. Alternately, there are a couple of nice sites on Kelso Lake and the north end of Alton Lake.

Hope you have a great trip. Beautiful area.

bottomtothetap: "

Dillon08: "Planning a trip in mid July from brule north to omega across to Long Island and down to sawbill. Im interested in information about the fishing along that route or just general information about the route"

I saw that the road to the Brule Lake entry is under construction now until October. No alternative route is available and Cook county is saying delays of up to an hour so if you are launching there you may want to take that into account.
"

Where did you hear that about the road to Brule? Are you talking about Brule Lake rd/326 (ie the final couple miles you take to the access)? Or are you talking the grade?

I'm curious what "under construction" means.. They aren't paving it, are they? I wouldn't imagine they're running utilities or anything.

I would assume this is the relevant road closure information.
FR 325 and FR 326

Superior NF Road work

thank you sir! I was looking but couldn't find the official info on it