Trying to plan a fishing trip next Memorial Day weekend to Saganaga. We want to stay at trails end campground with our camper and fish Sag with a square stern canoe and small outboard. When can you start reserving camping sites at trails end? When can you start reserving day use motor permits on Sag and how hard are they to get? Is there direct access from trails end campground to Sag? What about access from the campground to Seagull? I see they are connected by a river but do you have to portage?

I can't answer your first two questions, but that info should be available on the campsite reservation web page. Regarding direct access, there are two boat launches from the campsite that share a parking lot. The north launch puts you in Gull Lake with continuous boating to Sag. The south launch puts you into a little finger with access to Seagull. Be careful on the Seagull side: where it pinches there is usually a swift in spring and some shallow rocks in fall. In fact there is a pretty shallow and narrow passage on the Sag route as well, just North of Voyageurs. You can make it through both pretty easily in a canoe, so you might want to pull your motor out of the water for those sections. Once in the water, you can't go between Sag and Seagull without pulling your boat out, because of a rapids/waterfall West of the campground. However, with the two boat landings you could make it a car-assisted portage :)

also, those are two different permits for motor use. one is Sag and one is Seagull. sag is 25hp limit and seagull is 9.9, i think, and motors are only allowed in a very small part of that lake. you will need a motor permit for each day you plan to use a motor.

**once you exit you can not reenter the same day on the same permit.

Competition for campsites at Trails End and for day use motor permits will be fierce. If you get a campsite reserved , but fail to get a motor permit you do have another option.

Day use paddle permits are unlimited with no need for a reservation. Getting to a good part of Saganaga to fish can be assisted by a tow from one of the outfitters. They can drop you and your canoe off in the morning and pick you up in the afternoon. They will also be able to recommend a good location to spend the day fishing.

You really only need the motor to get out to the good fishing areas on such a vast lake. Once on good fishing grounds via tow, paddle will good enough to move around and even troll a bit.

sedges: "Competition for campsites at Trails End and for day use motor permits will be fierce. If you get a campsite reserved , but fail to get a motor permit you do have another option."

Day motor permits for Sag are actually pretty easy to get. It’s nothing like Moose>Basswood. There are a LOT of permits available most days. These permits aren’t tied to a specific day when reserving, but rather to a 7-day period. So if you’re going to be there for a week and you want to fish 3 days, you get 3 permits for that week and then you can decide which days you want to use them based on weather or other factors. You do need to decide by the day before you intend to use, I think— and you will need to drive over to Seagull or maybe voyageur to get each permit.

The overnight motor permits are a different story, those go much more quickly.

To answer the op’s question, the permits become available the same day as the rest of bwca permits, which I think is the first Wednesday in January. If you are online sometime that morning you shouldn’t have any issue getting your Sag DM permits.