Six guys looking to do a 6-day loop. Prefer most river routes, but want to do significant fishing. Have all been before, but base camped every time. Wanting to move to see more of the area, but will still go fairly heavy.

Thought about a tow to iron lake and do day trips from there. Suggestions?

Late September

The US side of Iron Lake burned up this year, along with most of the Stuart and Beartrap rivers. Campsites were difficult to get on Iron before the fire and I'm sure it won't be easier now with some of the campsites nuked. That's a lot of moolah, too.

I'd look at the Island River or the Granite River.
1. Enter Island River or Isabella Lake, make two camps between there and a Snake River exit. Plenty of walleye-filled river to explore and only short portages. If you want more of a challenge and to move more often, maybe enter at Hog Creek and exit at Island River or Snake River. This area burned in 2011 but is recovering wonderfully. The rivers here flow from east to west.
2. Enter Saganaga with a tow up to Saganaga Falls, camp on Maraboeuf, fish a day or two, move camp to Larch or Clove, fish another day or two, exit Larch Creek or Gunflint. You could do it in reverse and get a tow across Gunflint to start, or maybe even line up a tow across Sag for your exit. I suggest VCO for outfitting duties but you can't go wrong up there. This area burned in 2007 so the hammock trees are 4 years bigger than the ones down by Isabella. This river flows to the north but you don't have to worry about current as much.

Thanks, sounds like the area we always base camp ( fish stake narrows/ lady boot) probably was extremely burned also

If you are doing the Island River here is a tip. The campsites have been there forever for a reason. In front of each one is a hole you can catch walleyes. Jig & minnow or slip bobber from camp, it is that easy. I was there when it was all burnt out 10 years ago. I have a few more stories about that trip but I’ve told them before. Good fishing go for it.

STClairbound: "Thanks, sounds like the area we always base camp ( fish stake narrows/ lady boot) probably was extremely burned also"

Not extremely. The fire burned the far north shore of LBB and jumped across to the south at FSN but then barely made it to Kelsey. We haven't seen any reports as to how devastating it was in these parts either. Check out the map here on bwca.com.

Option 1 - Entry #38 - Sawbill Lake. Day 1 - Sawbill to Wine Lake. Sawbill to Kelso River, Kelso River to Kelso Lake. Kelso Lake to Kelso River. Kelso River to LuJenida Lake. Lujenida Lake to Zenith Lake by portage. Zenith Lake to Frederick Lake via short unamed river paddle. Frederick to Wine Lake.

Day 2 . Wine Lake to Trail Lake via Louse River. Wine Lake, Mug Lake, Poe Lake. Poe Lake to Louse Lake. Louse Lake to Louse River, Louse River to Bug Lake. Bug Lake to Louse River, Louse River to Louse River, Louse River to Trail lake.

Day 3. Trail Lake to Louse River. Louse river with various portages to Boze Lake, Boze Lake to Frond Lake, Frond Lake to Louse River. Louse River with various portages and pull overs to Malberg Lake.

Day 4. Malberg Lake to Hazel Lake. Malberg Lake to Koma Lake. Koma to pond, Pond to pond, Pond to Lake Polly. Lake Polly to Phoebe River. Phoebe River various portages to Hazel Lake.

Day 5 - Hazel Lake to Beth or Alton Lakes. Hazel Lake to Phoebe River, Phoebe River to Knight Lake. Knight Lake to Phoebe River, Phoebe River to Phoebe Lake. Phoebe Lake to Phoebe River with various portages to Grace Lake. Grace Lake to Beth Lake.

Day 6 - Beth Lake to Alton Lake . Alton Lake to Sawbill Lake. Out.

Louse River is amazingly high quality wilderness. Phoebe River is more frequently traveled, but no less high quality wilderness. Other small rivers have endangered flora to identify. Chance for wildlife encounters are high all along these routes.

If you haven't done so already? Check out this awesome trip report from straighthairedcurly that details an excellent rivers route with potential for good fishing along the way.

That sounds like a great option. What are the day/ trip/ portage lenghts? Will be fairly heavy but have a couple sherpas!

Here's a link to the maps section .

shc has a detailed map of her trip on the last day of her report and is detailed on how much she traveled daily and the usual difficulties she had to overcome to complete this trip. 47 portages in 5 days go for it.

I did a similar trip to SMH out of Hog Creek EP this year (June 1-9). I looped back through Lady Chain to get back to Sawbill. (@105 mi) I did it solo and double portaged with a solo canoe, day pack and 120litre dry back and fishing gear. There are a lot of smaller not tough portages, but there were a few longer but manageable walks. Your biggest one will be going from Polly to Kawashong (which i did in 2025) (EP37 Loop back to EP38) Over all my days started between 7:00AM and 8:30AM and ended before 3.(except day 1-2) The first 2 days were longer as you had long river stretches with no sites. I had a lot of wind days 1-4 which made travel tougher, but manageable. I also do a lot of fishing so also made days a little longer. Overall a really awesome route. However the Perent river to Isabella was pretty rough at times, as well as the Isabella river after Quadga is tricky at parts. Had to towline the canoe in spots like SMH stated. I did not have issues finding portages though. Below is my daily break down. Like others have said it is a doable 6 day trip. You could shorten by entering at Isabella Lake, Island River or Snake river, but logistics to get vehicle would take a bit more planning. Hope this helped

Day1 Hog Creek to Isabella
Day 2 Isabella to Bald Eagle
Day3 Bald eagle to Kawishiwi River Stopped at 2PM(could have made Lake 1 or 2 with no problem)
Day 4 Kawishiwi R site (next to EP 39 put in) to Lake 4 Site right before portage to Hudson (could have went further Stopped at 2:00PM)
Day 5 Lake 4 to Alice Lake
Day 6 Alice to Polly ( could have made it a lot further...stopped at 1:30)
Day 7 Polly to Beth
Day 8 Beth to Burnt for some great fishing action ( left camp at 7AM got to Burnt by 9:45AM)
Day 9 Burnt to Sawbill ( again out of the water by 11:00AM) Did some morning fishing

Sorry Kawshiwi river site was one near portage from Triangle lake coming from EP29 not 39)

love the info
thanks!