Tom:

This is a beautiful route. We did it maybe ten years ago by accident. We were supposed to fly into Clay Lake, just outside of the central eastern end of Quetico and paddle the Wawiag river into Kawnipi. When we got to Ely, the water was low and our outfitter recommended flying in to Ross lake and then cutting down and east through Sagonagons, and through the Falls to Kawnipi. Once we got to Kawnipi, the only other person we met had come in via the Wawiag, although he had to get his feet wet along the way.

He also had found a nice pair of Moose antlers. I always wondered if it was legal to take something like that out.

I seem to remember that we went downstream through that chain and some of the falls could potentially surprize unwary travellers. It's best if you follow your maps carefully and know where to expect the falls. The falls are fairly significant and make a fair amount of noise. If you listen for them, you'll know the falls are coming before you can see them.

On the way out we camped at a very nice, open, rocky area below one of the bottom falls. I caught some decent walleye and smallmouth by concentrating on the line between bubbling, turbulent water that just came over the falls and the slack water near the shore. Nearby were eddies like Skip described.

Kawnipi is a majestic lake. It has it's big sections, too. Fishing there was excellent.

We found a very nice camp site on the island guarding McVicar Bay. I'm not sure if it was the same one Brushy was talking about, but McVicar is the first large bay after entering from the falls. The campsite was just inside the trees on the SSW end of the island. My memory isn't what it once was, but I think there was some protected, shallow water on that island that was a bit warmer than Kawnipi in the summer.

The best fishing we had in Kawnipi was around this island. This was also the main area in Kawnipi we fished. Rather than telling you exactly where we caught fish let me say this. Most of the time structure is important when fishing these lakes. There are a lot of interesting structures around this island for the times you need to go deeper as well as shallow flats for those other times.

...Tom Swulius

Posted by Tom Swulius on May 03, 2000 at 01:34