Minnesota Outdoorsman
Minnesota - Specific Areas => Ely- BWCA- Gunflint Trail => Topic started by: Tyler Rother on April 04/11/11, 09:49:55 AM
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Any ideas on what are the necessities to bring on a trip to the BWCA? Leaving the end of the GF Trail on June 18th, and be out 9 days. No clue as to what to bring, as space is of course limited.
Any ideas or advice would be great.
Thanks,
Tyler
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This should keep you busy. :coffee:
http://www.bing.com/search?mkt=en-US&FORM=IA10AR&pc=RTME&q=bwca+tackle+advice (http://www.bing.com/search?mkt=en-US&FORM=IA10AR&pc=RTME&q=bwca+tackle+advice)
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Tyler,
Whats your plan? are going into "oh canada" or going straight west on the American side from american point or south west thru red rock lake? I've been thru it all over the years,from moose lake north of Ely,to Sag and just about every lake in-between,often times its fun to get in the middle of BWCA and setup a base camp and explore endless fishing opprotunities from there.
Remember,no cans or bottles are allowed,ramen noodles are a good choice inbetween shore lunches and lite weight,lots of trail mix,water purifier for lake water,tang or cool-aide is good too,two pair of shoe's/hiking boots,zip-lock your clothes and socks,small tackle box,couple rods,one heavy action one medium with a fast action tip for walleyes and smallies~its kinda late spring so the bugs will be heavy,biting flies by day skeeters by night,now days we have "therma cell" which would make hangin out around the nighly campfire nice w/o sticky bug spray.
Tim
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has anyone on your trip done it before? water proof bag.. a pair of old chuck taylors are nice.. they dry fast and you can wear em through a floating portage to protect your feet. a nice first aid kit is a must. and repaking all your food from the original containers helps with space. see if you can find a duluth pack or two. and military surplus stores are nice. and no matter what anyone tells you a good sleeping bag (hung out each morning) is a must. I'll never forget a family friend who went with summer weight bag against our advice.. he slept for 2 weeks in every piece of clothing he brought with.
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Erg lol.
Forgot a few words in original post, what tackle should I bring I mean.
My better half's uncle is taking us for a trip, unsure of the lakes yet, all I know is were making a big loop running SW up around and coming back from the north.
He gave us a list of what we need, my old lady thinks out summer sleeping bags are fine but I'm thinking of buying a small one specifically for portage trips.. Cant afford a Duluth pack as much as I'd love one. No one seems to sell em used either from what I can find.
Was looking at this sleeping bag
http://www.cabelas.com/product/Camping/Sleeping-Bags|/pc/104795280/c/104770080/SleepCell174-Sleeping-Bag-with-Coolvent/1168264.uts?destination=%2Fcatalog%2Fbrowse%2Fcamping-sleeping-bags%2F_%2FN-1100675%2FNo-48%2FNs-CATEGORY_SEQ_104770080%3FWTz_l%3DSBC%253Bcat104795280%26WTz_st%3DGuidedNav%26WTz_stype%3DGNP&WTz_l=SBC%3Bcat104795280%3Bcat104770080 (http://www.cabelas.com/product/Camping/Sleeping-Bags|/pc/104795280/c/104770080/SleepCell174-Sleeping-Bag-with-Coolvent/1168264.uts?destination=%2Fcatalog%2Fbrowse%2Fcamping-sleeping-bags%2F_%2FN-1100675%2FNo-48%2FNs-CATEGORY_SEQ_104770080%3FWTz_l%3DSBC%253Bcat104795280%26WTz_st%3DGuidedNav%26WTz_stype%3DGNP&WTz_l=SBC%3Bcat104795280%3Bcat104770080)
Got everything else down, just gotta figure out the tackle situation as that's limited.
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you may be in luck. I'll talk to someone I know who has 2 packs he can't use any longer. I'll see what he's willing to take for em. my tackle of choice was the 6 inch rapalas would always bring 2 black and silvers then a random sampling of perch to blue to jointed. also bring the deep running shads. then we would pack whatever else was easy.. spoons spinners etc.. but the rapalas are/were worth their gold.. haven't been in 10 years but thats all the old timer that taught us would let us bring, gotta save space.
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Sounds good beeker...let me know. Thanks for the tips.
Will find out more where I'm going by this weekend after trout opener I think.
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If you see cliffs that would be great to jump off of. Paddle over and grab hold of the rocks and virticle jig between cliff and canoe. GREAT small mouth spots. Also try any moving water between lakes. Good luck and take extra batteries for the camera.
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now that i reread my post i'm thinking it was the next size up rapala than the 6... I'll dig em out and check. haven't used em in a while.
also a good high end head lamp will be worth it's weight in gold.. if it doesn't end up at the bottom of the lake like my favorite knife.
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another great and versitale bait are jigs as stated above,3" twisters and a handful of different size/weight jig heads.
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I couldn't get him to part with the duluth packs. it was worth a shot
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Neighbor goes on a few trips every year. The bring locators and used to bring leaches. they now almost exclusively use Gulp. Leaches for the lakes and minnows for moving water.
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Since this is your first time to the BWCA you will find a lot of good suggestions here for what to bring. My suggestion is if you have not started a walking program tonight is a good time to start. Packing a canoe and moving your gear on foot paths will soon prove what kind of shape you are in not to mention 9 days of paddling. The good thing is the longer you stay out the lighter the load as you use stuff up. Also big zip lock bags are worth their weight in gold. The ones that are big enough to pack clothes in and keep them dry. It will rain and after many many trips to the BWCA ( I have spent at least 20 weeks up there) it is easier to just put your clothes in the bags and let it rain on ya. Easier to towel yourself off then try to keep clothes dry. Of course this only works when it is mid summer and warm out. ( now I will let the boys take being naked in the rain to where ever they plan on taking it} :campfire:
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Thanks for all the input guys, finding a lot of information here, and other BWCA Addict forums.
Just to find a pack now... Most expensive part.
Thanks also for checking beeker!
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a big military ruck sack would work fine also. lots of nice little pockets to hide all kinds of stuff in and places to tie off on. probably wouldn't need the frame. check the military surplus store in maplewood. I think it's on whitebear ave west of hwy 36?? lots of fun stuff in there for camping
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I think someone mentioned a "locater". I believe most places you launch from have these. My nephew and his wife went last fall and after spending two day on a rock (solid rain and storms) the decided to head out. He slipped hit his head (big gash) and knocked a hole in the canoe. They had to hit the "come get me" button becaues they could not continue.
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i think those are called "spots"??? cabelas had some in the discount cave last time I was there. they also allow you to send a "all is OK" message once a day to family
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Don't overlook horse head jigs. Put a twister on them and you can catch any species. Very versitile and take up little room.