1 fish for non residents.
Just make sure the 1 you keep is under 18″ if you’re gonna stop and fish the US side on the way back.
I’ve fished Swell Bay (and Redgut also) in the past with good luck around the second week of July, but that is a bit of a run from Lost Bay. Looks like about 6 miles just to get to Swell bay from the campsite, over 11 to Redgut.
I’ve always used Fishers when coming over from Cloquet with my Tyee. Not a ton of parking but never had any issues getting a spot and the ramp is decently protected for loading.
My septic/mound is a 2005 system install.
1000 gallon tank to a 500 gallon tank with pump to mound. I have a filter between the first and second tank to keep any floating solids from going into the second, which I clean every spring.
Personally I would not stay at Hammer bay Point or hammer bay sites. HB Point is low, buggy and weedy to get into the dock at normal depth. We stopped there one July and crossed it off the list immediately. hammer Bay is a super steep climb up to the site.
Would you consider a sunday to tuesday opening, with an nice site close to Ash River dock? Much better fishing in this area, than down in east Namakan, that time of year in my experience. PM sent
If you decide not to stay at B-mans, there are always class 1’s and 5th wheelers overnight parked at Black Bear casino during warmer months. Most of them are either in the smaller lot on the NE corner off the parking ramp and across from the pond, or in the bigger lot on the NW side just past the golf course office (you can see both easily on google maps).
Junction of I-35 and Hwy 210, and there’s a big Kwik Trip just east on 210 to fill your tank also. 2 miles south of Cloquet, 20 miles south of Duluth.
Just another option to consider if its just for the night.
fins gave you all good info. Wind, rocks and shorelines are the go-to for us on Nam that time of year also. And don’t ignore early weeds if you find them, they can hold fish all year long and most skip right by them.
We also love to throw #5/6 Flicker Shads that time of year in those same places, and really pick up a nice mix of eyes, smallies and pike.
If your campsite allows, throw a slip bobber/leech off it in the evenings when you’re back at camp. We have caught a decent amount of fish this way over the years.
Take the time to check out other sites while you’re motoring around for future trips.
Enjoy your trip, I’m guessing you’ll enjoy it and return again.
From the NPS landing its 9 miles to the back end of Cranberry, 10 to the back of Lost bay, and 12 the west side of Brule Narrows. I think if you brought another 12 in cans with your 23 gallon tank you would have plenty. Once you get to camp in either Bay, you will have several years of water to “xplore” within a few/5 miles of camp. There are so many humps, reefs, islands and shorelines to fish its pretty overwhelming at first.
As far as fish guts, I use the Rapala fillet board that has a hole and fits over a 5 gallon bucket. Fill bucket half full with water, clean fish and drive out to deeper water and dump.
I really wouldn’t worry about bears, in 27 years I’ve had 1 problem bear in camp.
Like Ron’s, it did climb into my boat pulled up on shore at night, but I caught it and scared it off. Guessing it smelled a bait cooler on the boat floor.
Let me know if you have any other ?’s. Sounds like a generator will have to solve the TM battery charging issue if you’re there more than a couple days.
Reservations for the whole May thru September opened up on Nov. 15th, so you may have a tough time getting a decent spot at this point. Tho I just looked and found 9 sites on Kab that I could reserve right now for May 16-19th.
Your gonna have to scroll thru the recreation.gov site, you can sort by lake (click on the “group” tab) but not by amenities (like a dock).
For the first time, they have a couple sites on each lake available for “last minute” reservations of only 7 days prior (I think).
Early in the year Kab tends to be better than Namakan, tho you can find plenty of fish on Nam also. I used to go every Memorial weekend, and again right when schools got out and fished east Kab/West Namakan and did well on eyes, smallies and pike in shallower water.
I’d start by picking dates and a site first and go from there. Yes, a dock is really nice to have, way easier to unload/load.
I know that lake, LOL!! Used to take my now 22 YO son out there quite often back in the day. 
Congrats to them!
I’ve had a Clam Pavilion for 5/6 years now and will not go to Voyageurs boat camping without it. It works great. Yes shield lakes can be an issue, I have used large rocks to anchor the wind tie outs at times if a stake can’t be used.
I have had the roof collapse twice during torrential downpours on Namakan, so now if it gets super nasty with heavy rain I will ride it out in the hub just to make sure. I am talking horrible thunderstorms here tho, and hail in one of them.
Love the roll up wind/rain panels.
BF,
As Dutch said, find the site first, then you can figure logistics of what/how much you’ll need. If your set on Rainy, will you be west or east of Brule Narrows? How many days are you planning?
When I ran a 17’/90hp I had 17 gallons in the tank, and brought another 12 with me (I knew I averaged @6 mpg with the Honda on those trips). I have only camped on the east side of the Narrows, and most times portaged over at Kettle Falls to that end rather than run from black bay. My current boat has a 40 gallon tank and I do not take extra gas. If you have a generator then yes, you can use it there to charge TM batt’s. I just make do with what I have on our 5/7 day trips, but most of mine have been family trips so not all day every day on the TM. I use drift socks and the main sometimes in heavier wind instead of using the TM. I’m looking into the alternator charger that Ron has tho as a possibility.
I’ve been camping Voyageurs since 1997 with over 500 nights in the park, and the 1 thing I will not go without is a good screentent. I use a Clam hub right now. Makes time in camp so much nicer. On a solo trip I even slept in it and didnt even take a tent. Other items always with, axe/bowsaw, first aid kit (ive had to use a few times), extra tarps and rope. Coolers must be kept in the “bear lockers” at the site if you’re not there. I use coleman 70qt Extremes and they fit great and last me a week with ice blocks. Portable grill (the bear locker is great to grill on top of fyi).
When you pick a site let me know, and if your open to Namakan as a first trip (way less open “bigwater”) let me know and I can give you some site recommendations or info.
Around Carlton we received about 4″ overnight. The wind has picked up so some of the new snow will be on the move.
Yup its already really whipping it down our road from the west, will make snowblowing it a treat in a bit.
And now it looks like -20+ next Tues/Wed nights so back in the deep freeze for a few days.
Downgraded our Saturday total to only 1″ now, so it must be headed south. Was gonna head down to the main U for my sons track meet Saturday, but kinda glad to find out he’s taking this meet off, with the sound of what might be coming in the Cities that day.
For food and beverage choices, I’m going with a 3# sirloin moose roast with carrots, taters and onions in the crock pot. FIL got it in NewFoundland this fall and its been tasty.
My second choice was gonna be shrimp po’ boys with homemade remoulade sauce, I do love me some fried shrimp sammies!!
Some Usingers salami and sausage with cheese and crackers for app’s, along with some maple syrup glazed smoked salmon and pickled herring.
For beverages gonna start with Bloody’s with Castle Cream ale chasers, and then make up a batch or 2 of Hurricanes for that New Orleans vibe.
As far as the game goes, my son is graduating in May and starts his first “adult” job in Kansas City (Lenexa technically) in June, so I’ll root for the Chiefs just on that basis.
For the more important food and beverage choices, I’m going with a 3# sirloin moose roast with carrots, taters and onions in the crock pot. FIL got it in NewFoundland this fall and its been tasty. Some Usingers salami and sausage with cheese and crackers for app’s along with some smoked salmon and pickled herring.
For beverages gonna start with Bloody’s (kinda like the Zing Zang Jimmy Pickle mix lately) with Castle Cream ale chasers, and then make up a batch or 2 of Hurricanes. Then I’m gonna call in sick for work on Monday with the rest of America (JK) 
Sounds like sledding season is about to begin there!
Yup they were out on Sunday morning bright an early, tho we had very little left on the trails here before that.
Been a bit active up I-35 north the last few days.
Got a solid 6″ of snow Saturday to Sunday AM. Then this AM it was -10, and tomorrow night we’re supposed to get another 4″, with another 2-3″ on Friday night.
Then more nightly below zero stuff most of next week.
I hope this is not one of those years where all our snow comes in Feb/March/April.
I was really hoping for any early spring season for trolling out on Superior.
Mine are in coffee cans, a couple metal and a couple plastic. They dont take up alot of room out in the garage shelves, but yea, they probably aren’t going anywhere until we sell the house and downsize in retirement.
Just never know when that odd left over whatchacallit is going to come in handy for some offhand project
That’s what we figured.
Tough to put up with that when we’re used to Vermilion, Bearhead and Fall lake campgrounds where things were pretty laid back.
North Central Wisconsin has a 400 head elk heard. I have been through the area several times but not seen any. They have flashing road crossing signs for them!
I believe the first transplants in WI were right around Clam Lake. What is interesting is that the originals came from Michigan, and some of the later elk that were reintroduced/added in the last 10 years were actually from Kentucky.
I’ve got an aunt/uncle in law that live a couple miles west of Glidden during summer/fall and they see multiple elk on their 40 every year. They are also situated in the Shanagolden wolf pack territory. If you check out the WI wolf incident reports over the years, the Shangolden pack has a bad reputation for taking out bear hounds.
My bad, I thought you were talking about Interstate Park.
We looked at Interstate, Wild River and St Croix State parks for our early trip and picked the middle one.
Planning to stay at St Croix state park next Memorial day weekend I think.
I don’t know if this would interest you (I don’t know if the wife or girlfriend will be with) but above the dam is the St. Croix Scenic Waterway, camping is allowed on the islands and river banks. It’s primitive, no bathrooms or showers. I’m sure somebody here will be on that stretch and could pull the Yaks up past Wild Mountain by boat if you wanted to get up where theres few if any boats.
Wild River actually is north/above Wild Mountain, and a week’s trip to Namakan/Rainy is about all the boat-in camping the FW will put up with these days
We bought a 24′ camper Fall ’23 and took 8 trips in it last summer/fall. Hit 6 MN State Parks but all up on the Range or North Shore. Decided to try one south for the early trip this year hoping for a little warmer temp’s and maybe a swim.
Thanks for all the info.
Yea that was my concern for late May was how much current ran thru that area and if I could navigate upriver or not. Might PM you or Bearcat closer to then and get a first hand report on river levels and flow.
I’ll bring the yak, the stretch above the campground looks kinda remote, but I think but going all the way upstream to Sunrise creek landing is a bit more than I want to do.
Worse case I can always find a deeper run and throw out a crawler off the bank. Looks like there’s a hiking trail along the river in both directions.
Great to hear!
The campground is a couple miles from the boat landing, so I’m hoping I can just carry-down the kayak to the river from our campsite.
I live about 10 miles NW of B-man’s right on the Cloquet city limit line outside of town. I have a trail cam in the back yard off and on, where I’ve fed deer some over the winters. Hadn’t checked it since earlier in December, and what do I see yesterday but a pic of a single wolf on 12-18, and the same one again on 1-12. And last weekend a neighbor was cutting down a couple of standing dead popple off our road for firewood and showed me a wolfkill doe in the ditch right were he was cutting.
Here’s pics from last year when I had another cam in the woods west of the house:
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<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>BigWerm wrote:</div>
I (we) are old enough to remember the first time it ever happened back when I believe Arne Carlson cancelled it statewide.
I was sitting up in the middle of Lake of the Woods those couple days, fishing just SW of Garden island off of Starren shoal. Fishing with Jakes NW Angle resort, we took a bomber from Youngs Bay all the way down to his houses. Never felt cold like that in my life before or since. The radio (yes, radio) said the temp was -43 in Warroad, and the windchill was -102 (old calculations). Just stupid cold.
The wind was picking up snow off the lake and it was a near whiteout but we caught a good mix of fish that day surprisingly, perch, pout, sauger and eye’s. We were dang lucky that the bomber didnt have issues.
I’ve been using a can of Amsoil MP the last few years on all of my outdoor locks with good results.
Use it on the trailer tongue lock, hitch pin lock, and keyed Masterlocks on the chain for the spare, the trolling motor plate and swing away tongue pin.
B-man,
I hunted deer for a few years literally straight west of you on the east side of 23 off the Wild Valley road. This was about 8-10 years ago now, and there were plenty of wolves roaming those woods back then. Was tough sledding to try and get any deer (went 0 for 4 years and moved locations)
I live just inside Cloquet city limits and have wolves here (next door neighbors small dog got taken down years ago) and we see their tracks about every time I walk down the snowmobile/atv trail next to our place. And when we walk or ski the trails on the west loop at Pine Valley we’ve seen wolves on trails there, and tracks are common on the maintained/groomed trail in winter.
Funny you saw one this morning, as my son and I headed up to Red on Monday morning for the day, and had one cross in front of us on Hwy 2 just past Brookston. Good luck up there, we went out of JR’s and had decent luck and some nice “overs” about 3.5 miles out.
2 hour delay for the kid’s school tomorrow
And not a flake on the ground up here yet at 7:30 AM
Buses will have a tougher time 2 hours from now…….
Just got back from a week in Playa Paraiso south of Cancun on Saturday.
This trip we used a park and fly, Home 2 Suites in Eagan. $250 for room and weeks parking and uses their own shuttle. No issues in the few times we’ve stayed here.
Going to Cabo for a week over New Years, and are park and flying at Best Western Dakota Ridge in Eagan. They use Uber, so no waiting for a shuttle, just call and they order the Uber for you both there and back from the airport. $210 for stay week and weeks parking.
Heading to Cozumel in late March and will be using Shepard Road parking. Have used this place quite a bit and very impressed. For covered ramp parking its about $110 total for a week, and their shuttle is prompt. Dont think we have waited more than 10/15 minutes at either terminal for pickup.
About a 3-4′ gator on a small pond at my in-laws retirement park near Sebring, Florida.
Was casting a frog Jitterbug from shore and half way back it just stopped. Thought I’d hooked a stick and gave a quick jerk and it was in the back of the gator who must have been just below the surface.
Luckily it got off after about a 20 second fight but for a moment I was really wondering what I was gonna do if it got all the way to shore.
