Trout fishing La croix

[jigboy]

I would like to fish the west end of la croix entering through the dawson trail from crane lake, any info on the trip and the trout fishing would be appreciated.

Any recomended lures? How far into the lake do you have to travel to get trout? Are there any islands that are known fishing spots? were can I get a Map?

[Steve Foss]

Jigboy, you can get maps of la Croix from the Minnesota Bookstore. One of east and one of west la Croix. Very big maps with lots and lots of detail. They are available online. You really only need the one of west la Croix.

The Voyageur Series Map 1 of the BWCAW shows all of Crane, western la Croix and the other lakes between the two. I don't know of any map that shows all the snowmobile portages. The folks at Voyagaire Lodge on Crane Lake are very helpful about that, however, and you probably can get some assistance in tracing the route if you bring your map along when you go. Use the really big map to find your spots, and the Voyageur map to mark them on and bring along. The Voyageur map is coated water resistant paper and folds up. The la Croix map is untreated paper and is not very portable for snowmobiling.

From Crane, you sled through Mukooda and Sand Point lakes before taking the Dawson Portage to la Croix. It was about 18 miles from Voyagaire to our fishing spot when we went in a couple weeks back. Plenty of excellent deepwater laker structure is easy to see on those big Minnesota Bookstore maps.

Of course, since you're sledding into Ontario, you'll need a passport/passcard when coming back through U.S. Customs at Crane Lake, and a Remote Area Border Crossing Permit. If you are fishing the Ontario side (motors allowed) instead of walking back into the U.S. side (non motorized BWCAW), you will need an Ontario fishing license and Ontario Outdoors Card as well.

Lures are no different than laker lures anywhere else. LLC isn't a numbers game, but average size is good, and you have a legitimate shot at a 20-30.

We had tough sledding conditions for our trip. The portages were very rough and had not been groomed, and there was about a foot of snow on top of 4-6 inches of slush on the lakes. It took us over an hour each way to sled the 18 miles. Probably the portages have been groomed since then, but more snow has fallen as well, and I don't know that the slush will have tightened up because of the deep snow on top. The folks at Voyagaire will have an updated trails report if someone who has gone in recently doesn't post one here.

Take your time and stay awake. The first trip will be as much a scouting trip as a fishing outing. Fishing was slow for us that day. In about 6 hours of fishing, we saw three fish, had two hits, and landed one, a 6.5 lber on a Slender spoon.

If you go over to the Canada forum here on HSO, there are a couple threads on la Croix on the first page.

Good luck!