I have to say, I really enjoyed reading the Glenn lake posts. I will be taking my first ever woodland caribou trip this June and plan to check that lake out for a night or two. Just curious, for those of you have been to Wrist an/or Aegean, which would you prefer? Priority for the day or two spent on the lake would be lake trout fishing. Thanks in advance for any responses.

We paddled through both last season, but the one that I'd be happy to spend lots of time on in the future would be South Aegean. I really liked the looks of that lake!

Been to both, camped on both, caught lakers on both.

Of the 2, I'd give a slight nod to Aegean ... a little more interesting in that the western side of the lake has a small "paddle in" cave and just across the channel from it a rather substantial hill that literally gleams in the sun ... its mostly made of quarts.

As for fishing ... that's hard. Got more 10 lb line break-offs on Wrist than Aegean, but still caught sizable trout on both.

Campsites ... if you get the best ones, maybe a tiny edge to Aegean ... especially if you are trying to find a place for 4 tents or so ... you won't find too many spots like that in WCPP.

South Aegean ... lots of islands which make it interesting ... it also has one picto site, however the campsites there are not all that appealing.

Let me know if you need more info. (Some of the basics of this trip appear in a BWJ article on WCPP by contributing editors Jim Carrier and Darrel Brauer back in 2009 (Fall, I think). In any case, that particular trip was in 2009.

(I'll be in WCPP, but a fair distance north of you in June.)

dd

We stayed a night on Aegean in August last year. It was a smaller campsite with beautiful views. Had a great spot for swimming too. We didn't get a chance to fish, but have heard great things about lake trout fishing from a friend we met there last summer (he's been going to WCPP since 1989!). We paddled through Wrist, but the portage into Wrist (from Jigsaw) was interesting...up hill, then all of a sudden it was a bog. They were clearing the portage when we went through which made it easy to follow (the sound of the chainsaw). We are also planning a trip in June to WCPP...still trying to pick a lake. :)

I am going this way early Sept. Still contemplating routes. Jigsaw looks like an interesting place as well. I'm interested in any comments on that lake.

quote hobbydog: "Jigsaw looks like an interesting place as well. I'm interested in any comments on that lake."

Jigsaw ... interesting, but unfortunately burned over sometime prior to 2009 so it will be in recovery mode for a few year yet. In 2009, there were no usable portages into or out of the lake.

I guess I should mention for those that are looking at various lakes ... A fire last year (Red 124) completely encircled Murdock lake and extended as far east as Knox Lake. It also burned most of the shoreline surrounding Larus Lake up to the southern shore on the east end of Thicketwood Lake.

Park material also indicates that the area is subject to more lightening strikes than any other location in Canada. I suppose this is a function of its location being east of the plains of Manitoba.

dd

I was on Jigsaw this last summer. Yes, it was burned fairly recently but it was still an interesting lake and I'm glad I paddled through it. In a way the burned areas were a nice change of scenery.

Alan

Thanks for all of the input. I think I may order the Fall 2009 BWJ, I haven't found any other way to find the article (libraries around me only have past journals dating back to 2010). Maybe we will go through South Aegean and Aegean on our way to Wrist, but we will be coming from Irregular so the thought of the 10 lb test line breakers on Wrist may entice us to go straight there. Any advice on what part of the lake to focus on?

Also curious if anyone has been on Irregular lake? There doesn't seem to be much info out there on Irregular, but the little I have seen makes it sound like a good lake for pike.

We've received our maps from Harlan (thanks Harlan - this is Andy and I plan on giving you a call in a few weeks to further discuss and confirm dates etc.) and will be working with him, but everyones input is definitely appreciated.

Jigsaw definitely was an experience and interesting to navigate being burnt. Kept asking my husband, "Do you know where we are?" And he'd reply, "The GPS does." Thank goodness we had a GPS. It was also very weedy if I remember right. We also managed to paddle right into a giant boulder that sat just below the water. Oops! We didn't take time to fish, but heard the fishing is quite good.

Irregular has muskies in it we've heard.

Harlan will do an excellent job with helping you plan your trip.

Here's a picture of the portage from Jigsaw to Wrist...

I pulled out my stack ... the WCPP article is actually in the WINTER, 2009 edition (starts on page 37).

Lake trout on Wrist ... our best luck was in the channel just north of "pork chop" island and slightly to the eastern side of the island. The portage from Hansen comes in just above the island. There are a couple of campsites about there, but in 2009 they were waist deep in deadfall. We camped on the small island on the extreme eastern side of the lake. Some descent flat ground for pitching a couple of tents, a few trees for tarp rigging, fire ring, low gently sloping rock face for take out plus lots of additional rock toward the southern point for lounging/swimming. The site showed little evidence of recent use (e.g., waist high weeds growing out of the middle of the fire ring).

The water drops relative rapidly as you move west from the little island toward pork chop, and the trout fishing in that area wasn't bad either ... just didn't tie into any monsters there.

I'd probably avoid the smallest island a little west of pork chop for a June trip. It had all the signs of a Woodland Caribou calving site. The island was covered in caribou droppings.

On Aegean, we stayed on one of the southern most campsites on the western section of the lake. If you extended a line NE from the portage going into S. Aegean, you'd wind up in a cove. On the eastern side of the cove is a point. The campsite is in the narrow channel just beyond the point. If you approach from the west, you'd see a couple of glacial erratics just back of the point. The campsite itself is a relatively large flat rock with a bit of vegetation on it (meaning, it has a thin layer of dirt on it). Again, the easy takeout is over a flat rock surface. Lot of room here to spread out and pitch tents. I don't remember a fire ring .. if there was one it was probably minimal (at least at that time). I did all my fishing west and north of there, so I can't tell you much about the eastern half of the lake other than it looked inviting while I paddled thru. (You'll find the cave and quartz hill up in the northwestern part of the lake.

dd

quote McVacek: "Jigsaw definitely was an experience and interesting to navigate being burnt. Kept asking my husband, "Do you know where we are?" And he'd reply, "The GPS does." Thank goodness we had a GPS. It was also very weedy if I remember right. "

I didn't have any problem navigating Jigsaw until I got to the portage much sooner than I expected and then realized that it wasn't there (wrong spot). Then I had to convince my brain to trust the compass instead of where I thought north was. It took a while to figure out where I actually was on the lake. I took it slower after that and referred to the map more often. There are so many islands so close together that from even a relatively close distance it looks like one continuous shoreline.

The presence of weeds on Jigsaw was one of my favorite parts. Lakes feel too sterile to me without weed growth. I didn't take the time to fish it but Harlan said the walleye were really good there.

Alan

I like all those lakes. One thing I thought was helpful is reading all the WCPP trip reports on canoestories.com

Thanks DD. The fishing info is appreciated as is the update on which issue of the BWJ that trip report is in.