Hello all,

Iam trying to pick a general route for our trip next month. Right now we have 8 days starting at beaver house and leaving the maligne river. We are thinking beaverhouse>quetico>oriana lake>jesse lake>Elizabeth Lake>walter lake>lonely lake>yeh lake>jean lake>budside lake>rouge lake>sturgeon lake>maligne river

We would like to basecamp at least one day and have one day that was maybe a half day. Where would you stop, fish, take the layover and anything else I might be missing with this area or should just be aware of?

I appreciate any thoughts you might have on this and thanks
Alex

Upnorth8,

We just returned from this area last Saturday. Six of us did a route that included Beaverhouse>Quetico>Conk>Jean>Burntside>Rouge>Sturgeon>Maligne River. We spent our layovers on Burntside and Sturgeon. If I could do it over I would have spent the Sturgeon layover on Albert where we day tripped. Or maybe even spent a 3rd night on Burntside where we had a 5 star camp site and the fish were VERY cooperative. Camp sites were in high demand on Sturgeon. We saw more people in the first 10 minutes on Sturgeon than we had in the previous 5 days.

This route is big water and wind will affect your plans if unfavorable. We had an easterly wind the first half of our trip, and although it was a light wind, it took a toll over the long haul across Quetico which is around 20 miles in length.

The members of our group all like to fish, so we spent mornings and evenings fishing and used the mid day hours to travel.

Good luck!

Snakecharmer

I was on that route with snakecharmer and barley man. Nice trip. Probably one of the best I've been on. Fishing was good, but not the best I've had, but I chalk that up to not knowing the lakes that well, and that darn east wind. Would have liked to have fished on Jean another day. Would have gladly traded the layover we had on Sturgeon, for an extra day on Jean. Nice sized Walleyes, and Smallys, nothing small, all 18" to 20"+.

Had we not been up 39 straight hours we may have been able to push into Jean the first day. We were pretty much going on fumes. I wasn't too impressed with the Quetico Lake scenery. I thought it all pretty much looked the same with hardly any definition. Long and narrow with hardly any islands to speak of. The fishing was good though. However, I think we missed some great fishing opportunities on Jean. We hardly scratched it. I loved Burntside. Probably my favorite boundary lake I've ever been on. So far that is. Who knows what next year will bring. I'm already starting to think about it.

I noticed you called Burntside Budside. Our shuttle guy also called it that, but the maps all say Burntside.

My McKenzie overview map in my office labels it as Budside too. I was confused trying to follow your route but know what these map can do. I figured it out.

The typesetter at the map company must have had fat fingers! LOL.

Snakecharmer

Or maybe he had too many Bud's by his side.