Boundary waters trip

[MinnBasser]

Going on a 4 day trip there in a couple weeks. I’m a first timer but my buddy has been numerous times but he’s not much of a fisherman. We’re entering at Mudro lake, heading up to Tin Can Mike for a day and then over to Fourtown lake for a couple. Obviously need to pack light tackle wise so I’m looking for suggestions on what to take from anyone that’s fished the bwca before. We won’t be keeping any fish for meals if that makes any difference in suggestions. Any other do’s or dont’s would be appreciated as well. Thanks!

[Bearetta]

Swimbaits, spinnerbaits, curly tailed jigs. Wire leaders for occasional pikes, Smallies is the main target we caught. Tons of fun.
lots of weeds in late August. Might throw some topwaters too. It is a lot of fun. I bet you can turn your buddy into a fisherman.

[RFeyoMN]

I've never been up there, but used to go to the north side of Vermillion quite a bit. You really couldn't go wrong with some 4 or 5 inch grubs(or small swimbaits) and heads, a few small medium depth crankbaits like small fatraps, and a couple topwaters. That's all I ever used, and had no problems catching smallies and sandcarp.

[bass-o-maticjm]

Berkley power leeches and an assortment of different sizes of leadhead jigs will get you everything that lives there. Throw in a handful of topwaters to mix things up.

[lundfisherman]

Deet..... Lots of it.

[BassF3arMe]

just got back from BWCA. We put in near loon lake and spent the bulk of our time on lac la croix. Most of our fish, both smallies and northerns, came on topwater. Walking baits and poppers worked really well, but whopper ploppers just slayed them. Wake baits did well also. I was able to get on a decent chatterbait bite up there a couple days when topwater slowed down. Take lots of perch colored things with you. green pumpkin/chartreuse plastics worked great for us. when deet won't help, break out the bug tent and a thermacell. TBH the bugs were not that bad this year

[MinnBasser]

Thanks for all the info guys! What would be my best bet for one rod to take to encompass as many techniques listed as possible? A 6’6” to 7’ medium to medium heavy, fast action spinning rod? Or is 7’ too cumbersome to haul around for portages etc?

[BassF3arMe]

I took a 6`8" M avid x casting setup (mono) for topwater and a 7'3" MH Duckett micro magic casting setup (invizx) for everything else. Some guys in our group had 2 spinning setups. My accuracy sucks with spinning rods so I was happy with my baitcasters. 2 rods definitely was a good idea. Use the topwater as a search bait. They will slap at it and sometimes not get a treble. Use the 2nd rod to come behind that with a swim jig or some kind of soft plastic and stick em with the single hook.

[Basscaster]

Buddy used Topwaters and gulp leeches/fitness worms and Gulp minnows on light jigheads..3 inch senko on(football head-??}

[Nick H]

It's more about location in summertime. Fish the windy side of all rocky formations available. If you have areas dotted with tiny islands and 10' or more water nearby that is the best possible combination. Canoes suck in the wind but even a light chop will help greatly to position brown bass. Old timers used to bring a tied up portion of an old innertube and fill it with rock(s) as an anchor. Works great and no extra weight to haul around. Just dump out the rocks if portaging.