Boundary Waters via Sawbill……

Hey Guys,

No Boundary Waters forum, so I’m throwing it out here……

We’re heading up Wednesday-Sunday for a quick trip. Putting in on the Grand Maris side- Sawbill entry point. We’ve got a 7 person crew and the plan is to paddle for a day and set up camp for the trip (we don’t want to tear down and re-set)….then take day trips from there.

I’m looking for suggestions on the better fishing lakes in the area. We have the choice of going Northeast into Smoke, Flame, Burnt, Kelly lakes…..or Southwest into Alton, Beth, Grace, Phoebe. Interested in Walleyes and Smallies.

Any info would be appreciated! Never been out of this entry point before.

I can’t help you with fishing, but I will tell you portages aren’t too bad. As long as you aren’t walking in knee deep water like we did. I moosed hunted this area two falls ago. Crazy wet when we were there.

There is one very cool creek to paddle, I’ll have to look on my maps tonight or this weekend. I can’t recall what lakes it was between. However, it may be dry by now, as I said, the water was unbelievable when we were there.

Send me a PM if you want to chat more.

Send a PM to Snow_dog.
He might have some info about that area.

When I was a teenager we went out of Sawbill probably half a dozen times. The walleye and northern fishing was much better on the NE route, mostly in Burnt Lake. I remember fishing Alton, Beth, and Grace without much to show for it. But I don’t think Burnt has any smallies, whereas the lakes on the other route do. I didn’t fish Alton much, but Beth and Grace both put out a reasonable number of small fish when I was there … like 12″ smallies. I do remember that Kelso, which is just off Alton, was full of 20-25″ pike.

That’s what I know. But this info is about 15 years old so take it with a grain of salt! Fish populations could have changed, or a little creative thinking might find better fish than we did. Either way, have a great trip!

I would go the Smoke, Flame, and Burnt lakes route. Flame is a tiny little lake with large pike in it. Burnt has some nice campsites and is an absolutely awesome walleye lake. The fish will usually be a lot shallower than normal walleye fishing. Just slowly trolling a nightcrawler or a leech behind a spinner along the shorelines is a great tactic for the lake. Pitching plastics like grubs and ringworms along steeper shorelines can also work great. Alot of the lakes have been infiltrated with smallies in recent years as well. Don’t know if it’s the case with Burnt as I haven’t fished it in a while. If you have any further questions you can PM me. Good luck out there and let us know how you do.

P.S. These lakes are also far less crowded than the Alton route.

My buddies and I were up that way Mem. weekend for 5 days. We stayed on White Pine. Did pretty good. A few perch and walleye. I’d just like to add to some of the replies that, while I was up there I noticed the last two days there were a few mayflies popping up. You may ( don’t hold me to this “idea”) have to deal with a hatch pending on the lakes. White Pine is quite shallow though, so you may not have to worry about it on other lakes. Good luck! Remember bug spray and rain gear. Never fails for me I forget one or both!

In the late 70’s/early 80’s I took many basecamp trips to Grace exactly at this time of year. All we ever did was troll original Rapala’s size 11 and 13 behind the canoe. We caught many walleye’s. We always ate a lot of fish and then took out our limit. We caught many that were 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 lbs, gold colored, long and thin. For bigger walleyes we would day trip into Phoebe Lake. In those days I could carry two packs or one pack and a canoe. From the Sawbill landing to our campsite took 2 hours twenty minutes. But then one day I got older.

Don, a guy your size should be carrying all the canoes and gear!

I would have carried the bait!

For you guys that don’t know Don, he is 8’5″ tall I think.