Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

June fishing exploits on Lac La Croix
by BWfishingfanatic12

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 06/10/2023
Entry & Exit Point: Moose/Portage River (north) (EP 16)
Number of Days: 9
Group Size: 8
Day 2 of 9
Sunday, June 11, 2023

~Temperatures dropped to the mid-30s overnights which made for some chilly but nice sleeping. During the day, the temperature was sunny and in the mid to upper 60s with clear skies and was calm to start the day with some mild wind kicking up in the afternoon in the 5-10mph range.

Everyone awoke at various times and breakfasts were on your own for this trip. Some guys slept in until 8 or 9 and other guys got up and started fishing. I got some breakfast and went out fishing with one of the Zac’s. We figured we would cast shoreline structure and get a lay of the land a little bit. It was a little misty to start the morning but nice and calm for topwater. I threw a variety of baits including a wake bait, wacky worm, jig and plastic for the morning session. Zac threw a crankbait and some other various lures including some topwater as well. In around 3 hours we combined for around 30 Smallmouth bass and a few pike. A lot of 15-18” fish but only a couple over 18” and no trophies over 20” for us this morning. Brad and Zack fished near or around us a lot of the morning and did similar to us but were able to pick up 6 or 7 walleyes on keitech swimbaits as they related to shoreline structure (timber).

I have always read that Walleye can relate to timber but have never caught walleye off wood personally. Brandon and Tyler focused strictly on Walleye and went North from camp up towards Canada. They were able to catch around a dozen walleye and they of course caught random smallies and pike as well. Jud and Matt elected to sleep in this morning. I think they both did some fishing off camp and caught a couple small pike and bass.

We had a lunch of rice a roni cheddar and broccoli rice with chicken. We relaxed around camp a little bit for a couple hours before heading back out fishing. Some people read, others swam, and some guys got some naps. Unfortunately, with the fire and storms that wrecked this camp a while back there was not much for options for hammock spots due to lack of mature trees. We were able to string up a big tarp for a little extra shade for us to have in camp. Back in the trees there were some bugs, but this site was really nice and exposed so they were not much of an issue for us.

The wind picked up a little bit in the mid-afternoon which made fishing a little bit difficult. We all ventured out in the evening to fish and all of us targeted Walleye. It was a slow evening overall for the group only catching about 20 walleyes between the 8 of us with a few pike and smallies. It was a glorious evening in the BWCA and was amazing to spend it with friends and family in such a beautiful place! A giant Luna moth joined us for the campfire festivities as well.