Minaki Area

[DaveFromMO]

Planning our annual trip in late September and looking at the Winnipeg River system near Minaki. Lots of reasonably priced lodges in the area but what I definitely don't want is to travel 1000 miles to Canada from St. Louis to stay at some place where I feel like I'm in the middle of a town. An older thread I read mentioned hearing a railroad track from their cabin. If that's the situation I'd be extremely disappointed when I got there and I'll have to be looking at some of the pricier places farther north. Anyone familiar with the area who could give me a sense of what it's like?

On fishing we like to target big northerns, so any opinions on the fall northern fishing in that area would also be a help.

[DeBo101]

How many are in your group? If you have 6 the best place to stay is sand lake outposts. YOu have to boat in from town but that would be the best wilderness experience and puts you right in the middle of great water. Northern fishing has been the best for me on big sand. I only fish muskies but seem to catch nice pike every year. Roughrock is my least favorite area up there for pike. Lots of muskies though. RR Lodge is spendy but is very nice and you will be in the wild. Not to far of a boat trip to big sand and little sand.

If you stay in town you will be near the railroad tracks. Big north and birch island are south of town and may fit your criteria.

[DaveFromMO]

Thanks for the reply DeBo.

It's just me and my wife so the big cabins at the Sand Lake place wouldn't work. Boating in somewhere would be fine though. If we stayed south of town then we'd have a longer trek to the better fishing waters every day, no? Do you have a feel for how long of a boat ride it is from town to the "good spots" on Big Sand?

[DeBo101]

I think it's roughly 15 miles from town to the north end of big sand. Easy to navigate water on the way up however once you leave the main channel things aren't as well marked. Time would depend on boat speed. Plenty of good pike available throughout the system. My experience has been best for big pike in big sand. Towards fall as a general rule fish start migrating back towards the river.

You're not going to get the true canadian wild experience if you stay in town. It is a short boat ride to find it though. We have seen plenty of wildlife. I think that is the case with most of the big waters near paved roads.

Let me know if I can help with anything else.

[MuskyBrian]

Dave, I have stayed at one of the resorts before located right in the cluster. Although Minaki may not offer complete solitude, a "town" is kind of a stretch. There's several resorts and cabins located in the cluster and yes there are railroad tracks but it's hardly anything like staying in Dryden or Ft Frances would be. There are more houses on the lake system in some places then you would think but it's still has a pretty good wilderness feeling. It's no worse then LOTW...

As for fishing...There's lots of Pike, I was there in September and couldn't keep them off my line while Musky fishing. As a musky fisherman myself, this is certainly a good place to go if you want a big fish, they are there and inhabit the same spots as the big pike too. I know you said you want Pike but I can't imagine a 54" Musky would ruin your day too much

[DaveFromMO]

No a musky would be great, we're just too lazy / impatient to target them. Plus we like to eat a few fish dinners while we're there and if we ate a musky we'd probably be banned from driving thru Minnesota for life har har.

On navigating the river and the lakes in the chain, does anyone know if this area is included in navionics charts? We've got a Humminbird that's supposed to have them all built in so it shouldn't matter which section they're included in. Thanks for all the info.

[DeBo101]

My lake of the woods plus 2k navionics chip has the area. Fairly accurate and it appears to be the same data as the government hydro maps.

[Outfitter17]

Hey Dave,

If you are looking for a place, come down to the Boat show at the Football stadium. It's the NMMA show, the show hours are Fri. noon-10pm, Sat. 10am-10pm, Sun. 11am-5pm.

The are quite a few canadian booths to talk to. We are in booth 1813 and 1811 in a big green booth if you want to stop by and talk.

[DaveFromMO]

Thanks for the invite Outfitter but we live something like 40 miles from downtown St. Louis and it takes an awful lot to get us to go into the city. I do usually go to the All Canada shows though (it's always west of St. Louis which is the direction I live) and I'm pretty sure I talked to you about your place at one of the shows a few years ago. We ended up spending our past few years' trips at Shoal Lake Lodge and the wife wants to go in that direction again at least this year. I still think we might get over your way one of these years though, your area sounded pretty cool to me.

[Outfitter17]

Dave,

You might have talked to me in the past, we have done pleny of AC shows in the past.

If we can do something for you in the future, just let me know.

Thanks,

[minaki]

Dave Birch Island lodge on Gun lake is awesome great food quite on an island 4 min's from town also some private cabins for rent check out Paradise cove lots of space 3 different locations in town I have a cabin on Gun lake I spend the summer as I am retired guy

[DaveFromMO]

Thanks for the info, with the wife's input and blessing (extremely important)we settled on Big North Lodge. We'll be there the last 2 weeks of September, so if you're there and you see an old guy fishing with a much-younger looking wife (she really isn't) in a Crestliner with MO tags that'll be us, give us a yell.