Our group is all set to go - Sarah Lake entry from PP - our 3rd trip into the Q, last week of June. Our plan A is to get somewhere on the north side of McIntyre and hit Brent, Pauleene, and Burt, possibly Suzanette or Conmee. So I guess I actually have 2 questions:
1) Any recommendations of sites in that area for base camp fishing?
2) Plan B. If weather and/or portages claim us, say we base around Sarah. I'm not too educated in that Sarah periphery. I know I need to hit up Sarah itself for lakers, but your suggestions for smallies and walters around there?

First post for me in this group - woohoo! Is it June yet?

I know of a campsite on McIntyre....It has a message jar cached way back in the woods, and a never fail trout spot out front.....I will e-mail you the particulars :-) We have caught some Largemouth on Pauleen, and had good fishing on Burt & Susanette...just average campsites ....Haven't had any luck on Conmee.....except Northerns.
fishguts

there is a nice sized island as you come off the portage from Side lake. it has 2 rather large sites, can easily walk between the two, very airy. probably want to travel off island for firewood.

supposed good trout fishing off west side (or SW area) of the island, lots of rocks. you will find many of my lures in that area.

You look at the huge size of conmee and wonder if many people really explore it. Lot of water out there. I pretty much skirted the edge it from Susanette to Brent,just looked across the wide expanse and wonder if anybody paddles around the entire lake?

Hey LilyLakePaddles... your name has me wondering... do you live near Green Bay? I've paddled on Lily Lake east of GB many times.

Actually north of Spooner, WI is where the name comes from. Family owns a cottage on Lily lake. Its a small couple hundred acre lake hidden away in the north woods.

I know people have base camped on Suzanette, but I never found a site that I really cared for. We had good luck fishing traveling through the lake looking for a site. (We ended up on Northern Brent instead) I know of a few decent site on Conmee, and I have spent 2 different nights on seperate occasions. There are plenty of base camping sites on Sarah.

On Sarah, I stayed in a pretty descent site on an east shoreline point at the end of a narrow channel between the shoreline and the big island (campsite RC on PCD). It has an easy takeout and flat ground there that would be good for a couple of tents. The firepit area is further down the southern shoreline and up against a rockface/cliff. (We were able to rig a tarp over the fireplace by anchoring it on top of the cliff.)

Although laker fishing was very good on up the lake, especially toward the southern end of the next island up the lake which more or less sets in the center. (However, I did pull in a laker from a hole that is just beside the takeout at the campsite. The hole couldn't have been 5 feet deep ... but then I was there in May.)

Smallie fishing? Don't neglect the little bay where you'll find the two portages into McIntyre. It was relatively hot when we were there. (I'd recommend the southern of the 2 portages. Its a little longer but an easy walk. Of course, the "wall" is always interesting to see on the other.)

BTW: I'd probably choose to skip the campsite (PG) in the narrows between the two larger sections of the lake. It is very exposed for my liking and you are almost certain to have people coming by your front door. Of course, if the weather is really hot, you might benefit from a nice breeze there.

dd

I agree with Denton, I surprised by the grade PG got. It did have a nice sand beach area but the site was too open for my tastes.