"Seeking Northern Q entry, vast amounts of water, good fishing with minimal portaging."
Sounds like my last trip! (family trip - easy on wife & kids - Stanton Bay - Rawn - Buckingham - French)  

Entry options:
French
Stanton Bay
Nym
Beaverhouse

Pro's:
French: NO portgate at entry. You can paddle ~40km to the west with NO portaging.  From central Pickerel, you can paddle ~10 km s / SE to Rawn which, NO portaging or add 3 short portages to Buckingham, which was empty for us.  From the west of Pickerel, paddle N to Batchewaung Bay & Lake, NO portaging.

Stanton Bay: 400m put-in portage puts you in central Pickerel as a starting point.  Nice if you're going somewhere or don't want to fight the wind on Pickerel out of French.

Nym: 800m portage near put-in (Nym-Batchewaung).  After that you can take out at French, NO more portaging.  Wind more at your back (does that ever really happen?)

Beaverhouse: small carry to put-in.  Most people bypass this put-in, but good fishing lake.  Small portage to Quetico - paddle 20k + to the East -lots of water to explore with NO portaging.  Or take short portages to Cirrus - another 20k long lake.

Cons:
French: fighting wind to paddle west; lots of people on the no-portage water!
Stanton Bay: need outfitter drop off; road may wash out again (out 2009, but fixed now); you'll see people.
Nym: 800m is not trivial; popular - many people.
BH: you'll see people near the entry, but the western part maybe not.  

Something to chew on...enjoy.

-Tom

PS: I clicked on your handle - you're 26, so how old's dad?  I was thinking 70 or something.  I'm 48 & my plan for next year (may get changed) is Stanton - B-chain - Ram -Antoine - bushwack to no-names NE of Lonely - Lonely - Walter - Eliz - Jesse - Maria - Pickerel - Batch Bay - Batch Lake - Nym.  
74 km route w/20 portages, 7km total portage length.  I'm not in the best shape - maybe your dad can do more than you think!