First time BWCA trippers. Likely three of us, for sure two. We've done some kayak camping, but never portaging so this will be an experience.

Hoping to secure a permit for the first week of June from Moose Lake. I've already set up to work with Williams and Hall for the trip, so we'll arrive the evening before, stay in the bunkhouse, and get an early start the morning of our permit.

The current plan is to get a tow in the morning to Birch, and then run the lakes/portages along the border to get into Knife. We'll probably try to find a campsite on the South Arm, and set up base camp there. Day trips to Eddy Falls, Enchanted Forest portage, and Sema for some lake trout jigging are some of the options on the table, but I'd love to hear other day trip ideas. We're pretty evenly split on fishing and exploring.

Camping gear we're pretty set on - there's a wealth of resources out there and all our gear is oriented towards kayak camping anyway. We're bringing the bug gear and the cold weather gear - we live in Wisconsin so we have an idea of what's coming.

Fishing wise, I mostly plan on fishing for the smallies. I've got my confidence tackle for bass all figured out, and I'm sure I'll catch some incidental pike as well. I do want to troll for some lakers and walleye and don't have a lot of experience with that - I'm currently thinking about pulling a spoon or flatfish behind a 3 way rig or keel weight. If our third guy is able to make it out we'll have another avid fisherman in the group, so I'll probably sneak in my Garmin Striker 4 into the gear to better facilitate jigging for trout and whitefish.

After 3 nights, we'll either decide to start making our way back and camping somewhere else, or staying another night where we are. Weather will play a big role in that decision making.

On the route back if we only stay three nights on SAK we're considering making our way through Sema, Spoon, Dix, etc towards Ensign as far as we can, camping where we find a site, and then heading back to a tow back to Moose. Any thoughts on that travel chain? If we stay all four on SAK we'll just head back the route we came.

Anyway, I'm mostly just excited and this seemed like the right place to post our thoughts and maybe get some feedback!

Sounds like a good plan! we did a similar trip a few years ago late May. You have done your research and should be able to catch some lakers in Sema. Nothing huge but some good numbers, we just casted jigs/spoons into the windblown shoreline there and retrieved with good success. Fish at the base of Eddy falls for some walleye, northern, SMB. Make sure to stop at Thunder Point on the way in or out for a great view! SAK can get surprisingly busy so get a good early start.

I second Thunder Point!!

Williams and Hall will take good care of you.

You'll have a great time.

I'm sure you'll get lots of advice; one tip I will throw in is: no (or very few) loose items when portaging...be organized - a place for everything.

The groups that look like a yard sale in a tornado tend to slow not only themselves, but other groups on those well-traveled portages.

Go enjoy!

Your second option you mentioned for the way back is definitely worth it. It’s a very interesting little series of lakes.

OMGitsKa: "Sounds like a good plan! we did a similar trip a few years ago late May. You have done your research and should be able to catch some lakers in Sema. Nothing huge but some good numbers, we just casted jigs/spoons into the windblown shoreline there and retrieved with good success. Fish at the base of Eddy falls for some walleye, northern, SMB. Make sure to stop at Thunder Point on the way in or out for a great view! SAK can get surprisingly busy so get a good early start. "

Thanks for the tips! Thunder Point is definitely on our radar as well and we're going to take the earliest tow we can get, so hopefully we'll be able to stop on the way in.

sns:"one tip I will throw in is: no (or very few) loose items when portaging...be organized - a place for everything."

Yes, this is good advice for a chaotic person like myself. Another one that I took was to buy a big main pack to fit as much into it as possible and limit the number of packs in the boat.

AceAceAce:"Your second option you mentioned for the way back is definitely worth it. It’s a very interesting little series of lakes. "

That's what I was hoping to hear! Hopefully we are able to get a campsite on Missionary or Vera, as I'm kinda doubting we'll get a late day site on Ensign if we could make it that far, and I'd like the last day to be a little slower going so I could fish a little on Ensign. That being said, all of these are just loose plans and ideas, and let the week take us where it will!

Maybe I missed it in your post, but are you kayaking or renting a canoe? Hopefully you are renting as with your route it will be much more enjoyable to portage a canoe than kayaks. Every person I've seen trying to portage a fishing kayak looks miserable as I fly by.

Coming back through Spoon, Dix, etc is a great choice. My best moose sitings ever have been through that chain. Eddy Falls can be very crowded with Scouts during the day, but it was quiet when we waited until late in the day to go.

I echo the comments about making sure all your loose items in the canoe can be tucked in a pack (water bottles, fishing tackle) or lashed to a canoe (fishing rods, net) when you reach a portage. Bring bungie dealee bobs (BDBs) or Nite-Ize twist ties to make it easy to attach things to the canoe thwarts or seats. I don't recommend having a lot of items dangling from a pack as it can be annoying when you walk to have things flopping around.

Have a great trip.

We're renting canoes. I haul my kayak plenty enough places to know that an actual portage would be miserable with it, so that's one of the items we're getting through the outfitter. Williams and Hall was excellent to talk to and once the permit is pulled I'll be chatting with them again to work out some of the other trip details. I'm guessing we'll have 3 people on the trip but there's an outside chance of a total of 5. Current plan is a tandem and a solo canoe for the 3 people, or a tandem and a 3 person if there's five.

Fortunately, my fishing tackle is what I consider to be very streamlined (though I guess with most fishermen that's a low bar) and the current plan is to hopefully be able to stash everything into a 110 liter bag per person, plus a food pack. I won't be doing my practice pack-up for a couple months yet though. The goal is to set us up for plausible single-portaging from a pack standpoint, but given that we all work computer jobs I'm betting that will end up just being efficient double portaging.