This will be our third trip to WCPP and after working a bit too hard last year, we have decided to take it a bit easier and focus more on fishing and exploration.

Here is our tentative plan, we put in on July 5 for nine days.
Artery
Lunker
Mary
Barkley
Musclow
Lawrence
Simean

I am satisfied that we have a handle on pike and walleye and I just don't have it in me to do what I think it takes to catch lake trout. Have caught a few trolling as we move.

But I would appreciate any information and experience with the smallmouth in these lakes. When we tripped in Quetico, there was so many and at times it was a bit too easy. Love that topwater bite.

I know it will not be like that this year. But I am interested in any similarities and differences in catching them in Woodland Caribou. Same lures? Hit topwater? Any differences in where they seem to be located?

Any help would be appreciated.

According the "Lakes and Fins" profile for WCPP, here is what is advertised (relative to SMB):

Artery: No, but since Mary's flows into here it would be easy to migrate. I visited, but only sparingly fished there
Lunker: No ... I didn't go there
Mary's: Yes, but I didn't catch any last year. Did great on Pike and Walleye
Barclay: Yes, but I didn't catch any last year. Did great on Pike and OK on walleye
Musclow: No ... I didn't fish there (and the flow is into Barclay)
Lawrence: I didn't go there
Simeon: No, but there is no reason they shouldn't be ... I caught SMB in the river section (and channels) just above Simeon. I did OK on Pike and great on Walleye (esp. on the northern end)

The only lake that would have Lakers would be Musclow ... others are quite possibly too shallow to support a laker population. Also because these lakes tend to be shallow, you should adjust your fishing technique to correlate to the habitat. I caught almost everything in less than 10 feet of water.

I fished almost exclusively with white jig heads and 5" white twister-tail grubs.

Hope this helps. You'll have lots of long water channels in this part of the park making for comfortable paddling mile after mile. (Picto's on Artery, Mary's and Musclow if you are interested.) Expect to see motor boats from the lodge on Sabourin throughout much of this area.

dd

Great response, thanks, for taking the time to do that.