Smallmouth bass are the finest freshwater gamefish that swim. Quetico Provential Park in southern Ontario, Canada is the best smallmouth fishing in the world! No kidding ---the best in the WORLD! My lofty opinion of this fabulous fishery is what attracts me to this wilderness every summer.
The Quetico is huge -- 60 miles wide and 40 miles broad and contains thousands of pristine lakes. It teams with the Superior National Forest in northern Minnesota to make up the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA).
On Labor Day this year, I joined two friends from Little Rock and Sam Speer from Buffalo City, for a week of fishing. We had 3 smallmouth over 6 pounds, 7 over 5 pounds and dozens of trophy 3 and 4 pounders. In 2007, I caught 4 smallmouth over 6 pounds during the week of fishing! I've managed to catch at least one smallmouth over 5 pounds every trip. It is an incredible fishery.
I first visited the BWCA in the summer of 1968. I was a young biologist with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and we were trapping black bear for reintroduction in Arkansas. During the 1950's and 60', AG&F released about 350 black bears into the Ozark and Ouachita National Forests - most of them from the BWCA.
The BWCA is world renowned for its thousands of lakes interconnected by a system of portages. These portages, historically developed by Native Americans, allow canoe travel throughout this vast wilderness.
Smallmouth were not native to the BWCA. Some industrious bass fishermen released them into the system in the 1930's. The bass did well and are doing even better every year.
Wilderness designation for this vast area gave it the protection from easy access and the pressure that follows access. No motors are allowed in most of the BWCA. Quetico Park has recently banned live bait and requires barbless hooks - both measures adding to the quality of the fishery.
Water quality is pristine. One old timer I talked to said that the water in the bottom of the lakes (100 feet deep in places) is left over from the glaciers. Whether that's a stretch or not, I still have no qualms drinking right out of the lake.
All these lakes freeze over each winter. The ice is usually gone by mid-May and the water is warm enough for good fishing by the first week in June. The bass spawn in mid to late June. The last 3 weeks of June are prime flyfishing utilizing hoppers, poppers, etc. There is a green drake hatch and other hatches throughout the mid-summer.
Biting bugs are notorious in the BWCA. Mosquitoes and blackflies can be fearsome in camp and in portages; but are not such a problem on the open water. After mid-August they are typically gone.
As the water gets warmed up in August, the fish move deeper and hold on rocky reefs from 15 to 20 feet deep. Plastics, like worms, grubs etc. fished on ultra lite spinning gear work well.
The lakes are host to a bait fish called Cisco which occupies a niche similar to our threadfin shad in our lakes. We see large schools of these fish in late August - early September and the big bass like to "blow 'em up" on top late in the evening. A well place Clauser minnow will hook up some very large smallmouth. Chasing these "breaking fish" the last hour of light can be some of the most exciting activity of the trip.
Canada requires a "Remote Area Border Crossing" permit if you go into their country via the BWCA. (www.queticopark.com/rabc <http://www.queticopark.com/rabc>). Also, a passport is now required. While we access the BWCA out of Ely, MN through Prairie Portage, there are lots of other access points and many outfitters.
Most visitors to the BWCA go for the wilderness experience - to hear wolves howl, paddle for days in relative solitude or just to camp. I go for the WORLD'S best fishing for the WORLD'S best freshwater fish!
Steve Wilson
