Anybody have any info. of any kind to share about this lake.

We were up in that area and spent four nights on a sight mid lake on the north shore. It was a very nice site on a beautiful lake. We did not fish, but had a great time.

We did not plan to stay on this lake, but were glad we did.

So I was wondering if anyone could share any fishing info., or really anything else would be appreciated.

Thanks, gbusk.

I was there last week with my family and neighbors for our annual family trip. It's been one of my favorite BWCA lakes for many years, as it's easy to get to for a short trip, scenic, and has clear water for swimming and snorkeling.

This is one of those hit or miss lakes for fishing. I've done many open water trips there and a few winter ones too. The lake contains mostly smallmouth bass and lake trout. We caught a small pike there last week, the first I've seen in the lake since 1981 when I first went there.

The lake holds some decent sized bass, but East Pike is way better, if you are looking for size. Lakers tend to be scattered, from my experience, but can be any size. I've never raked in the trout there, even though 95 percent of my angling effort in the BWCA/Quetico is for lake trout.

Amazingly, we had the lake almost to ourselves for three days last week, at the height of the season, even though the Clearwater parking lot was full. Does a 217 rod portage really scare away that many people? I would guess that most folks head into Caribou and on to Pine.

View from the Border Route Trail

Excellent view. We bushwacked to the top of one of the ridges NORTH of the lake, but had to walk far to get a view though the woods. Plenty of gnarly woods, blowdown and wasps.

Thanks guys, it was my wife's second BW trip. We entered through Clearwater and thought we would maybe even camp on that lake. However we encountered a large party coming off of West Pike who recommended that we head to W. Pike and grab a certain site there. We were glad we took them up on their suggestion.


We only saw a few parties the entire time and we surmised that it must be due to the fact that the lake can only be reached by a 200+ rod portage from each end, it is VERY susceptible to wind.

The wind howled for nearly four days and nights. When we attempted and I say attempted, to paddle from W. Pike to cross Clearwater on Mon, it took us 12 hours to reach the halfway point across Clearwater. At this point we were flagged into a site by some justifiably concerned campers. We spent the night with six people from WI who were more than happy to share their libations (gotta love those WI folks) into the wee hours of the night. We also spent a couple hours in another camp with four women from MN, while we waited for the wind to lay down. While there, we cut, split, and stacked some wood for them to demonstrate our appreciation.

We concluded that West Pike gets very little traffic due to its longer portages and propensity for large waves both on it and on the lakes required to reach it.

Have been to West Pike two times. Probably had the same campsite you had. Loved it. Caught only smallmouth. We stayed two nights each time, partly because of the wind. Last year we spent 8 hours on the shore waiting for safe weather to travel. Got to the campsite at 9:30PM. When we left and got to the east end of Clearwater, we called Clearwater Outfitters for a tow up Clearwater because the waves were really wicked and we had six teenagers, four first-timers in the group. Yes, one of the girls had snuck her cellphone in her pack. At that time I was glad she had. The tow from the eastern most campsite to the lodge took 45 minutes.

I don't remember fishing on this lake but I do remember a westward wind in my face. Big rollers. As you might expect with a long lake. No relief jumping on to Clearwater either.

Gbusk, You must have camped on that site within a day or two of us leaving it.

Arctic, were you the group of three canoes or so that recommended it to us as we paddled across Clearwater.

The last canoe in the party that recommended it we a kevlar model with a women in the stern and a boy in the the front. The lady said "that site is great and I love West Pike lake"

We arrived at the site on Thur. 8/13.

there are muskies in East Pike-rare in BWCA-I had one on and lost him at the side of the boat-a fierce fighting fish-very memorable-i've gone to that area 5 times in sept-very little company

Gbusk, that was our group. The woman you talked with is my wife, and the boy my youngest son.

Dang that is quite the coincidence! Sounds like it was a great trip.