I folks. I'm heading up to EP 33 in a couple weeks and I wanted some advice. We are probably going to base camp on Gabbro, but from what I can find online it looks like turtle lake would be a good day trip for pike. This looks like a perfect lake for me to target with a fly rod.

It is fairly small and easy to work. Not a deep lake so just about everywhere should be able to be targeted with a fly.

I searched the site and it looked like some folks said it is still a good pike lake. The MN DNR hasn't done an updated survey since 77 so I didn't really want to go by that.

Anyone have any advise about this lake?

Any advice on Gabbro for both pike and bass on a fly rod or normal rod for that matter.

Another possibility in that area would be Gull Lake. A few years ago we took a day trip from Bald Eagle to Pietro, passing through Gull. On the way back we fished along the rock walls on Gull before portaging out and couldn't keep the pike off our rapalas. Nothing big, but lots of fun. Also, one of our group did catch a big pike on Bald Eagle.

Yes. Turtle is a good pike lake. I've had some great days fishing on this lake including catching a 20+lb pike. But I've also had days where I caught maybe one all day. I would be prepared to use a variety of techniques to catch pike.

No fishing experience there, but I'll just offer that the portage from Bald Eagle to Turtle is a bugger, even on a day trip. Eat all your Wheaties.

schweady is correct - not that fun of a portage from Bald Eagle to Turtle. Northern fishing was OK at best. There are a lot of people that get excited catching 5-8lb northerns and that is exactly what's there. We did catch 1 that was 42"+ but that's something you can do on any lake up there. We try to catch big northerns in the BWCA and made Turtle a destination more than once. We aren't going to go back. It is shallow - so fly fishing the entire thing would be doable and probably productive.

There are some pigs in there. And big turtles too. I caught my biggest northerns there. One, on a solo venture, I had to paddle to the island to land it. A steady chop on the west shore gets them active I think. Shallow, ugly, kind of stinky smelling water kind of lake. Best story is when my son and I got too close to the point where a pair of seagulls had their nest. They chased us at least halfway across the lake trying to crap on us. They would dive down, scoop up water, then come back for another run. I hooked a nice slimer and told my son to grab the net. He said, 'it's a little hard when I'm getting divebombed by seagulls!' Good times. It's hit or miss maybe, but with a bit of a chop on the water, it can be a fun half a day catching decent sized fighting fish. ILikePike caught a big one there and posted pics a few years back. Maybe do a search. Good luck.

Thanks everyone for the advice and feedback. I had heard that the portage wasn't great, that is a bummer.

My biggest thing this year is I'd like the chance to catch some nice pike on my fly rod. I am hoping that it is still early enough in the year that the big ones are still shallow post spawn, but I dont really know what the weather is like the last few weeks there. Maybe I'll have missed it.

Where I come from an 18" skinny pike is average at best. Dont get me wrong, I'd love to catch a 40" fish or better on my fly rod, but I'd be happy with some nice 5-10 lb fish. So any other advice you all have would be great!

Thanks!

fished there last year and we caught several pike in the high 30's and hooked up with some in the 40s. It was fun for us since we mainly fish for smallmouth. We stayed on pietro the most time and killed the smallmouth but none were trophy size. Good luck if you go!

Don't be afraid of the portage. It's a nice walk in the woods. The put in at Turtle is a little rough. You will be fishing shallow. I don't think the lake is any deeper than twelve feet or so.

quote spottedowl: "Don't be afraid of the portage. It's a nice walk in the woods..."

Yeah, just that 6% grade to let you know that it would have been smart to stretch out a bit first. :)

Hi I'm thinking of taking a day trip to turtle lake from gabbro lake to fish for Pike and I was just wondering if anyone would help me out with a few spots to fish I'm new to the boundary Waters thanks!