Voyageurs National Park

[lucky]

Any info on good campsites. I'm looking for not very much traffic and good fishing with a dock and a food locker. I have a fiberglass boat and could park the boat on the beach if its in a calm bay. i will need 2 pad sites. maybe i'm asking for to much but i need help! i'm planning for a early aug trip. Thanks.

[Xplorer]

In early August, many times ANY campsite is a good one to get. It is a very busy time of the year and sites are at a premium.

I would suggest going on the National Park Service HSOforum and downloading/viewing the camping map for VNP. I gives locations and descriptions of what is at each campsite ie tentpads, bearboxes, biffies and what type of landing there is. This should give you a starting point on the ones that are OK to use with a fiberglass boat.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

Not being able to reserve a site is both a blessing and a curse. There is a group site on Kab that you can reserve if you have 13+ in your group. Has docks for the boats too.

[duckster]

Lucky,

What area are thinking about going into? In general that time of year it is easier to find a site on the west half of Kab, say west of Lost Bay. The best advise I can give you is to plan your trip to arrive Sunday-weds instead of near the weekend.

Good luck,

Duckster

[Xplorer]

WIWF,

I had heard from a park warden last August that they may introduce a reservation system on a limited number of regular tent camping sites in the next year or 2 throughout the entire park. They did it for the Kab peninsula sites last year. I think the reservation fee was $12 for your entire stay at those.

I have been looking to see if there has been any discussion about that for next year but found none. You havn't heard/seen anything on that have you?

[duckster]

X,

I have heard talk about it but won't happen for at least a couple of years yet.

[Xplorer]

duckster,

Thanks, I'll still keep an eye out for any changes that may come up in the next 4 months!!!! Namakan.....its whats for breakfast!

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

Speaking Namakan, I see the new Lakemaster chip has the entire Voyaguers system on it. It's about time

I have put off doing much exploring around the park in fear of not knowing where the hazards are. The chip will help open new areas to me.

BTW, got a closeout deal on a new Humminbird 788ci that I'm excited to use next season. Going to get the new LM chip & then I'm ready to go

[Xplorer]

I have been using the Navionics card with the on the water survey data the last 2 years. Have been doing Namakan for an average of 20 days/summer for the last 14 years, so I have most of it down (at least from pike island west to about Nebraska bay on Kab) I was just on the LM site looking at the latest MN version and only saw Kab as high-def?? Is the version you are talking about being released this spring?? I would defintely consider picking up the LM chip if it has all of voyageurs on it. Thats the only reason i went Navionics 2 years ago, for high def on Namakan and the east end of Rainy (nav has 1' contours out to 20', and then 3' contours to the bottom due to depth).

Me thinks a call to LM is in order

As my handle explains, I tend to do alot of Xploring while I'm there. I used to put my son to sleep when he wsa young slowly trolling thru new areas in the evening while he was in his "bouncey chair" falling asleep to the soft sound of the honda

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

I was looking at the new version 2 release for Humminbird units. Here is the link:

Map list: Lakemaster Humminbird version 2

[Xplorer]

Hmmm, I still have a Lowrance that is working and was looking at the new chip for that. Think I will send them a message and ask when the new surveys will be on that chip.

[TooTallTom]

Hey WIWF,

Do you mind if I ask where you found your 788 and what you paid? (I tried to send a PM, but got a message saying you weren't accepting them.)

Thanks,

Tom.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

Bargain Cave $499.00

[pureinsanity]

Speaking Namakan, I see the new Lakemaster chip has the entire Voyaguers system on it. It's about time

I was up there a few years ago and the navionics crew was all over those lakes. they had several boats running around.

[pureinsanity]

I went camping on an island on Nam with my dad and a friend. We hit the water found a spot on an island with a nice beach. We didn't have GPS at the time and someone had sliced their foot open requiring stitches. Trying to navigate those waters at night with out the aid of a GPS and Lake chip is crazy! Needless to say we had to leave the foot a mess and head to the hospital in the morning where they had to slice it back open and stitch everything up!

[TooTallTom]

Thanks. That's a heckofadeal!

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

Yeah, new units coming out for 2011, but I'm all about saving $ and using what I know is a great unit now.

[Xplorer]

I rechecked the lakemaster lowrance lake list and did find Kab, Nam, Crane and Sand Point as Pro Maps.

Yes, Navionics came out with their high-def maps 2 years ago for those lakes as well as the US side of Rainy. They help but there is still rocks that are missed.

Running the lakes at night is a matter of experience, you can't rely on a gps unit. Just ask the guy a couple years ago who was following his gps track back to his resort and ended up planted right on top of a rock reef. Ouch!

[TooTallTom]

WIWF, I'm the same way. I kind of the opposite of the early adopter of technology. I usually wait until the next generation has been announced, then buy what's soon becoming obsolete. I guess I figure the reputation has been proven (for good or ill) and all the bugs that are going to be fixed have been by that point.

Xplorer, my general rule of thumb is that I have to be real careful any time I'm in less than 5 FOW. 10 might be a better idea, but I haven't gotten that cautious yet. One of the other boats wrecked a lower unit on a trip that I was on as a kid, and we wound up towing them in awful, awful weather. That's helped create my attitude about boat travel in that area.

[moccasinboy]

Explorer, remember that the LakeMaster digital chart has both US and Canadian water, shore to shore, on the Kab chain. The entire Kab chain is on both the Woods/Rainy card and the Minnesota card in high defintion.

[lucky]

Thanks every one. We changed our trip for the week of the full moon in June. It should be good fishing and weather. My question now is what lake is the best for late spring?

[h8go4s]

"what lake is the best for late spring?"

Rainy is the farthest north of all the VNP lakes, so technically spring will be later there.

As far as the best fishing lake in late spring, you'll probably get lots of opinions.

[Xplorer]

So that would make it the 11th to 18th roughly.

I don't fish the Crane/Sandpoint side so can't comment there, but on the other end it would definitly be Kab on an average or late ice-out year (last year ice-out was wayyyyy early).

The entire lake has a good walleye bite at that time, and the smallies should be heading to the shallows for spawning. Weather can be iffy, water may be too chilly for you to swim (I do from Memorial day on ).

Keep an eye on this board to see how the lake temps and water levels are before you come up, and on Kab my best advice it to "fish the windy side"!! Whether it be a shoreline, island or reef, the side that the wind has been blowing into will produce more fish. Try trolling emerging weedlines for a variety of fish, northerns, eyes and maybe crappies if you really luck out!

[Fish Head]

I have both the newest lakemaster and navionics maps and they bother work awesome on Rainy. I go to Rainy in Voyageurs several times every year. Mid June should be good in general, but the walleyes might be in a little bit of a transition from spawning area to reefs at that time. Fish the windy side is always good advice. Big northerns should still be able to be caught just outside or near their spawning areas. As mentioned before, smallies should be close to spawning.