Packing Light For Fishing in the Boundary Waters

Guest blog by Omnia Fishing

We’ve broken down our gear essentials for packing light to fish in the Boundary waters to rod and reel, line, and top lures for a range of fish species and seasons.

The Boundary Waters is a federally preserved wilderness resource of over 1 million acres and 150 miles of the border between Canada and Minnesota in the United States. Anglers and outdoor enthusiasts travel from around the world to experience the beauty of the BWCA. With proximity to Minneapolis, the Boundary Waters is easy to access for Twin Cities metro residents or anyone flying into the Minneapolis international airport. The BWCA presents some fantastic fishing if you know where to go, how to target fish, and if you bring the right gear. The seasons change quickly so it’s important to be prepared for several fishing patterns and related techniques.

Anglers who fish the Boundary Waters can choose a few types of canoe and fishing trips that include (1) basecamp without portages, (2) destination lake trips with at least one entry portage and some day trip portages, and (3) a large loop with multiple portages. Understanding the scale of the Wilderness, where you’re headed and what kind of physical effort will be required can be simplified using a planning tool like Paddle Planner. Once you’ve settled on a location and type of trip, you can make small adjustments to your fishing gear planning.

Omnia Fishing is a Minnesota-based online tackle store that can help design the essentials of Boundary Waters fishing trips with the right gear. Omnia is a supporter of Sportsmen for the Boundary Waters and many of our staff spend their time off paddling the BWCA. Omnia Fishing and SFBW have worked together to build this resource with our favorite Boundary Waters fishing lures. It’s important that our customers head to the BWCA prepared and experience all that it has to offer. That includes a tug on the line, especially when the one holding the line is a young, new angler, or a first-time paddler of any age! Even experienced anglers struggle to narrow down their gear to a lightweight essentials list. Keep in mind that this gear list is intended to support a “pack light strategy” so these are our top fishing lures for catching fish in the BWCA. First, consider the type of trip you’ll take and how light you’ll need to pack.

Type of Trip

An angler should first consider the type of trip they intend to take before selecting gear. The focus on packing light for fishing in the BWCA is best for an extremely mobile canoeist that plans a few portages and will stay “on the move.” This gear list is best suited for the big loop and trips with at least one portage. If you’re a novice BWCA angler or this is your first trip you can try the packing light plan for non-portage base camping or destination lake paddling. As you learn more about what gear you need, and more importantly don’t, you’ll use these packing strategies and trips to practice for future loops and ultimately mobility. If you’re like some of us, part of trip planning, even for base camping, is to challenge yourself to get everything you need in one pack. Here are a few details about the 3 categories of trips we’ve mentioned:

Non-Portage Base Camp

Novice Boundary Waters Canoe Area anglers may consider finding a lake that doesn’t require a portage. There’s no need to pack tightly because you’ll pack your canoe, paddle to your campsite, unpack and stay put. This can be a great time to practice fitting everything into a single pack which may include all your fishing gear.

Destination Lake with Portages and Day Trips

Destination lake anglers plan to portage at least one time with all their gear to reach a popular destination lake. Day trips with portages from the destination lake may allow you to leave most of your gear at a basecamp. If this is the case, we suggest a small fishing and gear daypack to organize your tackle and reels on day trips. Packing light is critical if your entry point portages are long and you don’t want to double back for loose gear. This packing light guide for fishing in the Boundary Waters can be supplemented with more colors and sizes of each soft plastic and jig to find the magic color for the conditions, forage, and pattern.

Big Loop

Big loop trips can be the most challenging trips even for the most experienced paddlers and anglers. Only portions of each day are spent fishing since paddlers are covering a lot of ground, setting up camp each night, tearing down and packing up each morning and carrying all your gear the entire trip. Keeping all your gear limited to essentials and striking the right balance for gear weight is the best chance at adding a quality fish to your experience for photos or dinner.

Fishing the Boundary Waters

The Boundary Waters Canoe area is home to several species and most fish in this vast wilderness see a relatively small amount of fishing pressure. These factors allow anglers to bring a small amount of gear and still have a successful day on the water. The core fish species targeted and caught by anglers are smallmouth bass, walleyes, and northern pike. Lake Trout can be found in a few key BWCA lakes and require the most unique techniques since they live in much deeper depths than other species. All these fish can be eaten with the right preparation. It’s common to bring a backup meal but plan to eat at least one fresh fish shore lunch during your trip. Walleye, Minnesota’s state fish, is one of the most delicious species for lunch and dinner, especially after a day of hard paddling. We’ve broken down our gear essentials for packing light to fish in the Boundary waters to rod and reel, line, and top lures for a range of fish species and seasons. This essential fishing gear and lure list is good for most scenarios, species, and lakes within the BWCA.

Best Fishing Rod and Reel for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area when Packing Light

As a starting point on gear, we recommend a standard spinning rod with a light spinning reel. A rod that breaks down into multiple pieces will fit in your pack and eliminate the need to carry it separately during portages. We had to consider the widest range of fishing techniques and essential lures for fishing the Boundary Waters. We did include a topwater frog which isn’t normally fished with a spin caster, but these are the tradeoffs when trying to reduce gear and weight and stick to a single packable rod and reel. Our top pick for the best rod and reel when packing light in the BWCA is the St Croix Triumph Rod in a 4-piece with medium action. The rod is 6’ 6” when assembled and with the multiple joints will perform closer to a medium heavy in case a big pike grabs a lure (a pike will grab almost any bait you toss out of your canoe).  Our favorite reel for packing light is the Pflueger President at $50 or the Daiwa Legalis at $69. We recommend both of these in the 2500 size range and are by far the best dollar-for-dollar value of price to quality and versatility.

For details on bringing multiple rods for multiple species, check out our article about our Picks for the Best Rod and Reel setups in the Boundary Waters located here.

Best Fishing Line for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area when Packing Light

The 3 categories of line include braid, fluorocarbon, and monofilament. Different situations call for different types of line and even knots, but in a scenario where we’re packing light, we keep it simple with a low-cost box of Berkley Trilene XL 8 or 10-pound monofilament line that offers durability and performance. Spool your reel in advance of your trip and bring a small spool or extra line in case you need to re-spool.

Keep in mind that mono line does retain memory on the reel and does get brittle so it should be changed every couple of seasons to avoid twists and break-offs when you finally find and battle the fish of a lifetime.

Tackle Box Organization and Tools for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area when Packing Light

Now that you have our top recommended rod and reels for packing light in the BWCA, you’ll need a small, flat tackle box that’s easy to access and pack away quickly. Our top pick is the Plano 3600 Flex Box series that locks easy, isn’t quite as big as a 3700 series box, and keeps your gear dry. The 3600 Plano Flex Box provides an angler with the flexibility to adjust the size of each compartment for optimized storage.

We also recommend a good set of pliers and a towel for fishing. These can be included in a small sack that holds your reels. The Strike King KVD Carbon Pliers will reduce weight and are our pick for the best price to value to weight ratio. Keep these clipped to your belt for easy access and the cord will keep you from dropping them in the drink! The function of the needle nose pliers will allow you to easily remove deep hooks, common when fishing with a bobber. Pay close attention to your bobber to avoid a deep swallow of your hook and result in a dead fish you’d like to release.

Best Fishing Lures for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area – The Essentials when Packing Light

Below is a list of our top lures for fishing the Boundary Waters. These picks are based on the idea that you’ll need to adapt your strategy based on changing conditions and relevant techniques. You have limited space so it’s important to prioritize the items that give you the best chance to catch multiple species using multiple techniques. You might not know the exact pattern of the fish before you leave so it’s important to have a variety of baits and strategies for effectively putting the right bait in the best section of the water column.

Lukas Leaf of Sportsmen for the Boundary Waters recommends at least 7-10 lures that match top-performing techniques for fishing the BWCA.  Here’s our list of the top baits to fit in your medium-sized tackle box, or the Plano 3600 Flex Box mentioned above:

• Round head jigs (Bring approximately 10 of these in a couple of sizes and colors in the ¼ to 3/8 oz weight)
• Underspin Jigs (bring approximately 6 of these)
• Paddle tails (for search baiting and cast and retrieve)
• Split tail soft plastics (1 pack)
• Worms (for wacky and modified ned rig)
• Hooks for wacky rigging
• Deep diving crankbait for warmer weather transitions
• Shallow Diving crank bait (when water temps are cooler at the beginning or end of the season when fish of all species are closer to shore in the warmer waters. In the fall fish will be chasing baitfish for food in these same areas near shore)
• Spinnerbait for northern pike
• Casting Spoon (1)
• Jigging Spoon
• Leaders (2) for spoon and spinnerbait to avoid Northern Pike line break
• Weedless frog or other baits for topwater smallmouth for late spring and early summer patterns when bass are warm and actively feeding on the surface
• Rapala X-Rap Pop for bass
• Bobber (for bobber set up. Most common when you also plan to bring leeches or worms in a locking live bait holder)
• Hooks (for bobber fishing)
• Swivels
• Sinkers/Splitshot (to get your bait down to depth quickly – non-toxic if possible)

This set of fishing tackle should allow you to catch the most common species in the Boundary Waters during all patterns and seasons. Techniques include the following:

• Modified Ned rigging for bass and walleye
• Simple cast and retrieve for bass, walleye, and small pike
• Trolling crankbaits and spoons for lake trout
• Jigging for lake trout
• Casting spoons for Northern Pike
• Spinnerbait fishing for Northern Pike
• Frog fishing for bass
• Bobber fishing for bass and walleye
• Deep cast and retrieve for bass, pike, and walleye
• Shallow cast and retrieve for bass, pike, and walleye
• Popper fishing for bass and pike
• Wacky rigging for bass

If you are looking for more information on the tackle to bring on your next Boundary Waters trip, we recommend you hear what Executive Director of SFBW, Lukas Leaf mentioned in his packing light segment featured on Omnia Fishing. You can see the video in this Link.

For more details on hot baits using Omnia’s shop by lake technology, you can visit omniafishing.com.  As an example, you can read and report productive tackle using Omnia’s shop by lake feature.

Categorised in: Blog, Fishing, News, Partnerships