Jump to content
  • GUESTS

    If You  want access  to member only forums on FM, You will need to Sign-in or  Sign-Up now .

    This box will disappear once you are signed in as a member.

Recommended Posts

Anyone have suggestions for a lake trout lake that is one or two portages into the BWCA? I'd like to pull a lightweight ice shelter and snowshoe in. My buddy and I are planning on making a weekend of it and doing some winter camping, so we're willing to hike several miles. I only keep one laker a trip, too. I have some ideas for spots, but any advice/suggestions would be great.

Thanks. This is a great site, I've been checking it out for several months now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just completed my first winter Laker adventure on Snowbank last month and fishing was fair to good considering the amount of time we spent fishing could have been greater (only 6 hours or so); we spent alot of time just enjoying our first winter BW trip. We hiked all the way to the furthest edge to get away from civilization and it was nice. Went out of Smitty's and can't say enuff good things about the place, the owners or the advice we received. One idea that may have to wait till next year is a hike into West Pike from Clearwater. This lake is full of Lakers and would be a nice trek (7 miles or so) to get to. Good luck!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

Give Partridge or Daniels a try.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

HeavyD...Did Smitty tell you about Flash Lake? I caught some nice Eyes in early January.

I lived two miles West of Snowbank on Moose lake. I enjoyed stopping for a six-pack at Smitty's and taking that last drive down the Snowbank lake road home. Out of all the lakes in Northern Minnesota, Snowbank and Basswood are my absolute favorites. Long trips, but easy during open water and the outcome is spectacular...walleyes and Lakers!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Two years ago, when we had a really warm March, in fact it had rained for a couple of days before we went - we actually skated (almost no snow at all or we would have had to ski) to the other end of Clearwater and fished there for two days. Pretty nice camp site on the west side of the last wide portion of the lake - we hit a couple of points on the way in too. Didn't slaughter 'em, but we had decent action for boundary waters laker fishing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

AK70, Flash Lake was brought up during my inquiries on winter walleye activity in the area, but since we were going to remain on Snowbank I left it alone until a future trip. It is nice to know that there are walleyes to be caught during the winter because according to the Schmidt bros. they are tough to get in the winter cause they go so deep (clarity of Snowbank can't help either). Thanks for the info on Flash and on how good Basswood and Snowbank are in the summer, I will definitely be giving those a try this year. I am always looking for new fishing spots!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.


  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • smurfy
      Looks to me like Leech brought his chair home!!😅😆
    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
    • leech~~
      As I get older it's really not just about sending bullets down range.  Some of it's just the workmanship of the gun and the wow factor. The other two guns I have really wanted which I'll never have now because of their price, is a 8mm Jap Nambu and 9mm German Luger.   Just thought they always looked cool!  
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.