Hello all,

My buddy has gone once before and I have never been to the BWCA.

Hoping!! to enter July 27th into Bower Trout Lake. We plan to base camp on Swan, maybe Vernon. Is there much of a difference between the two for busyness and campsite quality? I know it will probably be abnormally quiet if the area does reopen in time.

We are open to any suggestions anyone has for getting on some eater walleyes on any of this string of lakes. Marshall, Swan, Vernon, Lac. Complete noobs to fishing, planning to just put a little plastic tail on a jig and hope for the best. Maybe a rapala or something too.

Thanks!

If you haven't seen it already? Here's some info on a Bower Trout entry. Bower Trout - in and out

Just entered there June 29th. Wasn't bad getting to Swan. Only people seen were at a camp on BT. Took the site on the point on Swan. Very nice site. Storm blew in late afternoon and squashed our evening fishing. Would have liked to fish more but packed up next morning. Portage to Vernon is a little challenging. Checked the campsite by the portage to Brule that gets good reviews. I liked our Swan site better. Suppose to be good fishing in Swan. If I were you, I'd just stay on Swan. Good luck with yur entry date

Did this trip last summer. First portages are decent walks. Stay on the boards as the muck along side them can be deep (previous reviews and personal experience confirmed!). Went to Swan for three nights. Looked at the eastern site but were hoping for the second site on Swan (the point). Second site was taken. From afar assessed that the western site was low lying so returned to the eastern most site for three nights.

It is quite elevated. I love that feel but it is a steep walk to the top. Great views through the trees. Good breeze kept the bugs at bay. One nice tent site at the top - and drained superbly as we had two downpours during our stay.

Swan 770

Swan 770

We are very amateur fisherman and we caught quite a few fish just in the bay to the east/northeast of the campsite mid-morning the first full day. Caught mostly SMB but a few walleyes as well. Bass hit on top water baits (whopper ploppers, Rapalas) and walleyes hit on a mix of crankbaits and leeches on slip bobbers. My buddy had something just about snap his pole out of his hands and battled a big fish for about a minute until his line snapped. Bent the rod a long way - was something much bigger than we had caught so far.

We repeated this the next couple of days, never needing the leave the bay area as we fished the shore line back towards the portage to the east.

Daily catch on Swan

Moved back to Marshall Lake for the last night. Campsite there is tucked into some cool cedars. It is low and right at the waters edge. Worked well for the two of us. We fished both sides of the river as it flows into Marshall with decent results - some on leeches with a slip bobber and others on Rapalas, cast right into the heart of the rapids and let them float. We anchored right near the shore for our casting. Another SMB and walleye for the pan that night.

Saw the two people on the point for the first two days on Swan and then two other canoes passing through. One couple with two kids on Marshall as they were passing through to Swan on the last day.

Great trip - loved the elevated campsite, good fishing for two amateurs (best overall fishing I've had in almost 20 years of BWCA tripping - but I only fish casually with one meal being my goal so take that into consideration), and peaceful.

Hope it works out for you!

We went through this area last fall and camped on that point campsite- it was beautiful! Good tent pads.

We had gone in on Ram and out Bower Trout, so we came from Brule. The long portage out of Swan to Vernon is worth walking in my opinion- there are a lot of old logging "artifacts" in the woods right off of the trail.

Enjoy the trip!

Vernon has a great site by the stream with a path back to the waterfall. It's a quiet spot that I've had good luck with isolation. There is only one other site on the lake and is far enough away that we only noticed someone paddling over there, then didn't notice them for the rest of the trip.

I haven't been to swan but I've heard the fishing is better than on Vernon. That's not hard to claim though because the fishing on Vernon is not that great. The portage from Vernon to Swan, we were coming from Brule, is a little longer and we didn't find it worth the effort. My first time going there was 10 years ago and I had a heavy Old Town canoe, and my trip this year was with my younger kids, so I wasn't all that interested in the portage.

Did a trip out of EP 43 to Swan a few years back. We stayed at the middle site and it was exceptional…had a
Pine martin visit us one day. Caught walleyes along the deep dropoff edge not far from that last portage into Swan (get a lake depth map and you’ll see what I’m talking about) and some walleyes from the point near the campsite. That was a fabulous trip! Enjoy yourself!!!

About 10 years ago I went to Swan from Bower Trout with one of my daughters over Memorial Day weekend.

The first people we saw on the first day were the people camped in the middle site on the point. We chose the western site over the eastern because it had a tent pad near the water. The next morning the people on the point left and we considered moving because it’s an awesome site, but decided it wasn’t worth the effort. We were alone on Swan for 2 nights. On the way back to the EP we crossed paths with 1 group and the site at Marshall was now occupied.

I really liked this trip and Swan Lake. It did take longer to get there than anticipated because it’s a lot of loading and unloading with all of the short paddles before the next portage.