Hello,

I am pondering a couple route options for my son’s first trip in June. We will enter on Sunday 6/8 and exit on Saturday morning. He’s all in for all aspects of the BWCA experience, but his favorite thing to do is fishing, so I want to get him into some smallmouth and pike action on our trip.

First option is Sag—>Ester, fishing in that area (Ashdick, Pitfall PMA, Rabbit, or SAK—>Spice or SAK (if we choose to only spend a night on Ester we will layover a day to fish Spice or SAK)—>Alpine—>Grandpa, layover day to fish Roy and Grandpa.

Pros: Aside from Sag, SAK, and Seagull, plenty of smaller water to stay out of the wind. I’m familiar with this area. Mostly shorter easier portages.

Second option is Clearwater—>Caribou, fishing in that area (Caribou, Deer, Moon, maybe even up to Mountain if a late ice out makes Lakers a possibility). When not fishing, take time to go see Johnson Falls. Hike the Clearwater Palisades. If we aren’t having luck on/near Caribou and we have the time/energy, we could try to get over to East Pike for pike fishing.

Pros: Supposedly great fishing on Caribou. Plenty of options for other things to do if the fishing isn’t great. My biggest concern is finding a campsite on Caribou during this time of year. Our entry date will be early morning on Sunday. Does that help us? Backup options would be to stay at the east end of Clearwater, Deer, or west end of Pine, but Pine puts us a long way out on some big water. I’m more worried about wind with all these big east/west lakes with this route. And of course, the portages are all pretty long and many are hilly too.

My son is pretty strong for his age and paddles well when we’ve canoed on rivers around home. He does a great job fishing independently. Mainly just not sure how he will handle portaging. I of course want him to have fun but also be a bit challenged.

Which one?

Clearwater is a harder permit to get but is a very pretty area. If you can get the permit, I would go there.

I have done Sag to Ottertrack with my son. I highly recommend a tow to get through most of the water on Sag. If there is no wind, you can easily get to Ester the first day.

Took my son at age of 13 on his first trip out of Clearwater. We left Sunday morning and stayed on Caribou, Pine and Clearwater. 5 night trip. No issues with site availability. Our trip was in mid-July, but we enjoyed excellent smallmouth fishing on Caribou, Mountain and Pine. Lot of smaller fish, but tons of action to keep him engaged. Also took day trips to Johnson Falls (keep following trail to headwaters - it is worth it); Boundary marker on Mountain; Clearwater Palisades and BRT lookout points.

Be mindful of the wind as you will be on some large lakes. We were lucky during our time that wind was not an issue. It has interrupted subsequent trips, so have some alternative camp entertainment - cards, books, etc…

Happy planning and go make some lasting memories.

P.S. If you decide to enter at Clearwater (EP 62) you better be ready to go on permit day as they will gone very, very quickly. I believe almost all permits were gone last year within the first few hours.

I took my 9 year old out for his first trip near the end of August. It was a quick in and out, 2 nights. Wind was a factor so we took one of the first sites on Brule. It ended up being about perfect for a site because of the wind, cold, and rain. The bugs started coming out when it warmed up on our last day so it would not have been nearly as pleasant if it was warm and sunny.

Our trip was shorter and we weren't doing a loop or long trip so the wind, while a little scary when we were so overloaded because we were going for comfort for the 9 year old over ease of portaging, wasn't as much of a factor. For your trip, I would recommend sticking to smaller bodies of water, especially if you are planning on the 12 year old paddling.

Triple portage if that makes things easier, or just don't go as far. You would rather ease into it and leave them wanting more than go too far and have them saying never again.

Thank you all. I’ve swung back and forth but after really sitting down and crunching some numbers on these prospective loops today, I think doing a full loop through SAK is pushing it too hard. I travel hard on my solo trips, but I think keeping the travel days to 4 hours or less (ideally 3) is more prudent. With fishing a priority, the SAK loop just has more time “lost” to travel, and really only two days dedicated solely to fishing and relaxing. The Clearwater option is better for sure, but I think option 3 of a Red Rock loop may be the best bet.

Get some fishing in on Grandpa, Roy, maybe Sag or Red Rock or Seagull. Take it slow and travel if we feel like it. If we travel too much, the campsite setups will wear me out and he will feel like the fishing part really he wanted to do never happened. Caribou base camp with light travel is still a solid second option and may be the winner, it’s just harder for me to contrive a reasonable loop from there so it would most likely be a long base camp on Caribou.

If Clearwater permits are gone, you can easily reach most of the same area going in at East Bearskin. Yeah, the Canoe to Pine portage is there, but its not that bad. Loop back thru Deer and Moon to East Bearskin.

I was fortunate enough to grab a Clearwater permit. My plans were to stay on Caribou. And boy, Caribou did not disappointed us, as far as smallies goes. The bite and quality were excellent. Our group was there on the second week of September 2024. Happy paddling!

YardstickAngler: "Thank you all. I’ve swung back and forth but after really sitting down and crunching some numbers on these prospective loops today, I think doing a full loop through SAK is pushing it too hard. I travel hard on my solo trips, but I think keeping the travel days to 4 hours or less (ideally 3) is more prudent. With fishing a priority, the SAK loop just has more time “lost” to travel, and really only two days dedicated solely to fishing and relaxing. The Clearwater option is better for sure, but I think option 3 of a Red Rock loop may be the best bet.


Get some fishing in on Grandpa, Roy, maybe Sag or Red Rock or Seagull. Take it slow and travel if we feel like it. If we travel too much, the campsite setups will wear me out and he will feel like the fishing part really he wanted to do never happened. Caribou base camp with light travel is still a solid second option and may be the winner, it’s just harder for me to contrive a reasonable loop from there so it would most likely be a long base camp on Caribou."

Many years ago my buddy and I and his two mid teen sons spent a night at Flour Lake campground before entering the BWCA. Had the amazing sausage and pancake breakfast at Clearwater Lodge before launching from their landing. Spent 3 nights on Caribou and had very good fishing, also did a great daytrip to Johnson Falls. Day 4 we headed down through Deer and Moon to Alder Lake and got a very nice campsite there. Planned on exploration and fishing there but we were seriously windbound on Day 5 but made the best of it in camp. Day 6 we headed back to East Bearskin Lake and portaged north to Aspen Lake and back to Flour. Stayed at the same awesome campsite in Flour on our last night and after getting settled took about a 2 mile walk back to Clearwater to retrieve the vehicle, was actually a very pleasant walk. Had a great trip overall, beautiful area and the Flour Lake campground is very nice. The walk back to the car was kind of fun and not a bummer at all. Point being, you are not relegated to a basecamp trip only, here is a pseudo loop option for you if you are interested.

Trip report available if you are interested.