PSU-

I'm not a Quetico paddler.  I just paddle the BW.  that being said there are some good resources out there and I'm sure you'll get some advice from some Quetico padlers.  That being said there is a book out that might be a good place to start.

The book is Furtmans Boudary Waters fishing guide (not sure the actual name, I'll have to get back to you on that).  the book covers Quetico Lakes as well.  It does a fairly good job at telling oyu what species to suppect in the lakes you plan to travel and will give some basic fishing tips on how to get them.

Have a great trip!

Phantom / Paddle Guy - Thanks you your input. Ive picked up Furtman's fishing guide which gives a good overview. Any thoughts on the fishing to be had down the Maria Lake-Oriana route to Quiteco if we try that way?

i second kerrys idea. my group has spent the majority of our 5 years between jesse and oriana. for the maria/oriana route you have two options, going through hamburg or going through jesse.

the jesse route provides you with some nice fishing opportunities. jesse has darker water and tends to be shallow. white or chartreuse are the colors there, and the numbers of walleyes are great. should easily be able to keep the kids busy. a must visit lake if you have young kids along.

my group never has fished maria or hamburg because we prefer just to make it to oriana the first day with plenty of time to set up camp and whatnot.

oriana is probably my favorite lake in the park. beautiful scenery, the water is more on the clear side, deep, and open. also, what we find important, is that oriana has every species you want in the lake. lake trout, walleyes, smallmouth bass, and pike. sometimes its a bit tricky to find big fish because it is a cisco forage based lake. the larger fish tend to hunt the schools of cisco while the smaller fish 15"-20" range stick to shore and bottom structure. the only issue here is that its pretty open, so if you get a windy week you might struggle with the youngins.

issues you may come across on your route... if it has recently rained, the maria-jesse portage becomes a swamp and the little logs float around. last year(on our way out) they were doing some trail management and dug some drainage ditches, so this may have changed.

if the water is low, the maria-hamburg and hamburg-oriana portages are along streams. with low water the streams are not navigable in your canoe, so they turn into long walks along streams through tangled grass. not overly pleasant for youngsters.

make sure you get yourself a quality map of the whole area. i believe the quetico north central map only goes to the western edge of oriana, so you might need the next map over as well if you are going into quetico lake. its a good idea to make some color copies of the areas you plan to go and laminate them so everyone can have a map, just in case.

If you only have 5 days total, I'd go in at Beaverhouse at sunrise, have your paperwork so you can skip the Ranger Station and head straight East down Quetico lk. August with any luck you should have a tailwind and be able to make it to at least the end of Quetico lk, maybe Oriana.

Spend a day on Oriana, then jump into Jesse and then exit at Nym if possible. If you have to go back to entry point, I'd go from Beaverhouse straight into Cirrus, base camp somewhere central and day trip.

5 days total isn't much and IF you lose a day to high winds, which isn't that uncommon, you don't want to have a long way to go and a short time to get there

Couple other thoughts:

1.  Invest in a portable depthfinder...or better yet convert a regular depthfinder into a portable for even more lightweight option.

2.  Make sure everyone has a rod holder so you can troll as you paddle.

A depthfinder will help you stay on the right depths for the fish you want to catch.  How deep?  Experiment until you find the depth where you catch fish and then use the depthfinder to stay on that spot or find similar spots.  You may not actually see any fish on your unit but once you figure out where they are a depthfinder keeps you in the productive zone.  It'll shorten your learning curve on fishing your lake by a considerable amount.  13-year-olds are not known for their patience...as I'm sure you are well aware!

Trolling as you paddle makes a lot of sense.  First and foremost it gives a kid more reason to paddle than just "we need to get to...(wherever)"  If you are trolling and catching the occasional fish, paddling seems like a lot less work to a kid and he'll be more willing to stick with it.  Additionally you'll learn a lot about what's working or not working for lures and depths before you even get to camp.  Keep your depthfinder on as you go, of course.  Finally, trolling offers your kids increased odds of catching a real lunker that could gut-hook them on canoe tripping for life.