I've seen a number of posts that imply fishing on Cherokee is lame. Has anyone done well on this lake? I plan to camp there on a loop but might continue into Gordon if the fishing is said to be that bad.

I have heard that it contains lake trout and i friend of mine has a neighbor who lives just outside of the BWCA and makes a trip every year to Cherokee for the lakers.

I have no first hand report however.

Only one way to find out...

I have heard that it has good lakers and decent pike but havnt been down there yet. thinking about it next year. I would also like some info on this large, interesting looking lake. All the islands interest me.

got skunked there,but its was cold windy and rainy. tom

Never been there, but from what I read it's a very beautiful lake. I've also read that the fishing is less than spectacular.

We spent two days on Cherokee last year. The lake is beautiful. The fishing was really tough. We fished hard; trolling and jigging breaks in homes of some fish for dinner. It wasn't until the second day that we were able to find some weed structure that held a couple pike. Go to Cherokee for the views and islands, not the fishing.

Have been there a while back, beautiful lake, great island campsites etc... but yes the fishing was pretty tough. If you are specifically targeting lakers, it may be decent. We had great luck with northerns the same year we got skunked on Cherokee in lake Sitka which is one portage off of Cherokee. Also, a different year, we had a pretty nice northern in Gordon just north of Cherokee. According to the DNR report, it looks as though eel pout and white suckers are the predominant species in the lake, and even the lakers are in small numbers. Maybe a cool place to camp, and make day trips for fish. I believe the Temperance lakes have decent fishing as well. Sitka was great for northerns when we checked it out.

I think I remember someone telling me the lake has very poor and few spawning grounds.

Old post but I still check these for information and tips so figured others might too :)

I stayed a week on Cherokee last summer. It is beautiful, no doubt. I fished casually throughout the week and trolled whenever I was canoeing for day trips. Not one single bite. Talked to a few others out there that week who also weren’t catching anything on that particular lake.

If you are on Cherokee and are looking for big pike; hop over to town lake. 3 footers in there. There is also an old portage to cash lake at the end of town. I wonder what cash is holding?

Back in September 2016 I took 3 newbies with me to Cherokee. We flew up from TX. We got to Cherokee late in the afternoon, set up camp, ate dinner and went to bed. The next morning as we were drinking coffee and making breakfast in the quiet north woods we hear a motor. It can't be, not in the BWCA! We all go down to the shore to investigate and around the corner comes a motorized canoe. It was a couple guys from the DNR doing a fish study. They had been dropped off by a float plane the day before. They were there the entire 3 days that we were. We ended up talking to them and they said that they were not finding much of anything. We confirmed that as well.

We spent two days on Cherokee about 15 years ago. It's the only lake in over 30 years of BW trips that our crew was skunked. We packed up on the morning of day 3 and headed for South Temperance and ended up having a great trip with moose sightings each day and memorable fishing.

We caught a very nice lake trout, too big for 2ppl for dinner, but we ate it anyway.
just off our campsite. we were there in late may. went to town and nothing nada not a nibble

i had 2 friends that went into cherokee and caught some Dandy lakers , i was a bit surprised , it was close to ice out which will always be in your favor to hook into lake trout. but i have heard the same about fishing not a lake your gonna kill'm on.