sawbill lake?

[bgreen82]

planning a trip up to the "wilderness" for hopefully late june. sawbill is the main lake we're looking at. we want to try to get into northerns, smallies and 'eyes. last year we went to brule in early august and got mostly smallies with a few small pike. prolly had something to do with time of year too but was wondering if anyone had any info on sawbill and connecting waters.

[kevheads]

Alton lake next to Sawbill is known for its quality not quantity of fish.I've stayed on it 2 different times,caught some big smallies but they were few and far between,caught a few walleyes but nothing big,seen one guy take an 8-9 lber out.Don't waste your time on Kelso lake,its full of little

northerns.I didn't fish Sawbill.

A nice campsite on Alton is the farthest most northeastern site.Great site but never could catch anything from that site.

Check out http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefind/index.html

[bgreen82]

bump

[matthothand]

We always did better on sawbill and alton at night for the eyes. Supoosedly a good fishery for big eyes but the biggest I could manage was 26 inches and we were on fish. Our best trip was in late june and we concentrated on rock humps located offshore on both lakes. Humps that topped off at 12 - 18 feet surrounded by 25 fow or so worked best for us day in and day out. I would recommend a gps and flasher/sonar unit and a really good map so you can stay on these spots or where ever you find fish. Smallies shouldn't be a problem. We did better on smallies and pike on the smaller Beth lake which is west of alton after a 144 rod portage on the SW side of the lake. Good luck hope I helped!

[bgreen82]

big help. thanks a bunch for the info. looks like we might need to make it an early august trip again. we'll see.

[bgreen82]

bumping this thread up. we are going to be going in august. are there any late mid to late summer patterns for walleyes up in that region or this lake in particular. i'd really like to hit some walleyes this year up there for some good eats. im not a fan of smallies and pike got them y-bones which i dont like dealing with, plus i love a flaky eye fillet.

[DaveSorensen]

It's been several years since I've fished them, but we used to do very well on smoke for bass and walleyes and burnt primarily for walleyes. Had good fishing for walleyes on the Northeast arm of burnt lake (nice campsite on burnt as well). Both are easy portages, not as easy as Alton, but easy enough for me to go back more than once. We fished both these lakes many times from July to end of August and always had good results.

Good luck

[Mudcutter]

burnt is good lake for eyes and even a few smallies. Let most of them go, since it gets hit pretty hard. Jack is not bad either, especially early, but practice catch and release.

[bgreen82]

thanks guys. will be releasing majority of fish.