Our last full day on Malberg, we plan a big day trip up to Pan for some fishing. We get to Pan and there are canoes all over fishing. One nice man in a solo and large beard said they were doing alright but we decided to skip the crowds and keep going since I’d heard there were lakers in Makwa. A few more lakes and portages and we had Makwa to ourselves. We ate a quick snack on an island and cobbled together some deep-fishing rigs, including a little cleo I’d just ordered from Cabelas. Our first drift/troll run I caught a nice 18” fish and our day was made. Neither one of us had ever caught one in the BW before. I have no idea how deep we were or how deep my lure was. We trolled all the way around the lake and got nothing. Came back to the original spot and caught 3 more, all fish on the little cleo including this 20” laker/splake. We kept one since it’s jaw was in bad shape after getting the hooks out. Back to camp to figure out how to cook and eat this new fish. (it was amazing) Side Note: On our way back, we fished in Panhandle a bit (not worth it) and missed the portage landing. We found what looked like one at the very SE corner of the lake. Landed, started down the trail and it was very overgrown and rough, not what we recalled doing earlier in the day. But it was still a trail and basically impossible for me to turn around with the canoe so we kept going. Many twists, turns, and bangs with the canoe we were at the same Pan landing with the wonderful sandy beach we’d been at in the morning. Turns out there are 2 portages between Pan and Panhandle, DO NOT take the eastern one. If you are on Pan, head straight north from the landing, don’t go right as there are 2 trails. If you’re on Panhandle, don’t paddle along what seems to be a huge beaver dam/embankment to the SE corner.