Quetico and the Boundary Waters Fishing

Mepps spinners:
Examples of Mepps spinners are the original #5 Aglia with the squirrel tail: Year after year this lure has been a real trophy catcher and all around fish producer. I would not go to the BWCAW/Q without several of them. I've tried the smaller sizes but find that the fish in these waters are not shy about hitting the larger #5 size. As a result I have stopped taking any smaller Mepps spinners. They should always be used with a leader because they attract pike from far and wide like no other lure. The Mepps is a little tricky for the beginner to use, but it is well worth the time it takes to become proficient with it. The difficulty lies in the fact that it sinks quickly and is easy to snag. By adjusting the speed of your retrieve, the Mepps can be run deep along the bottom, or shallow just under the surface. The absolute most effective way to use this lure is to find an area as described above for jig spinners or a weedy bay and cast the lure over around or even through the weeds for pike and bass. Pike will be lurking in as little as 2 feet of water and viciously attack this lure. If a pike strikes and misses the spinner, continue the retrieve and the fish will often circle and hit it again.

One of the first places we stopped to fish during a trip in 2004 was a narrow weedy channel between 2 islands that varied between 2 and 4 feet deep. My friend Kyle, who was on his first canoe trip, and I tied on our Mepps spinners. After a few casts I caught a 24” northern. A short time later, Kyle hooked his first Quetico fish, a monster 43.5” pike that we had to beach in order to photograph and release. Later during the same trip, we also had our most productive day of fishing throwing Mepps spinners in weedy/rocky bays. We caught about 50 fish in a few hours one morning, with several bass over 18” and lots of pike around 30”. Kyle found that bulging the spinner (retrieving the spinner extra fast just below the surface to cause a bulge in the water ahead of the lure) is what the fish wanted. The color they wanted that day was gold, but sometimes other colors will work better. Gold is always worth a try.

If you use this lure without the steel leader, at least use a snap swivel, as this lure is prone to causing line twist that will eventually lead to a nasty snarl.