Lakeland Canoe Circuit Trip Report

[timsesink]

Hey Everyone
I took a few days and did the Lakeland Canoe Circuit (Sun-Wed)as canoe tripping is my ultimate favorite thing to do :sHa_shakeshout: . Went the Jackson, McGuffin, Blackett, Kinnaird route and had a blast. It was very quiet and had an awesome time fishing, easily 100+ pike on the trip, only three walleye, one of which was legal but we weren't targeting them just fluke catches. Five o' Diamonds any of the midsized was working great.

We stayed at the Jackson Peninsula campsite on Sunday night then the Blackett south-end west campsite for two night (rained cats and dogs for 36hrs so spent two nights here) and then up Kinnaird to home (really long day, especially when the 3k portage turns to 9 because of no canoe carts :angry3:). I highly recommend this trip if you enjoy being more secluded, and aren't afraid of some hard work. The McGuffin-Blackett portage is nasty beyond description so make sure to plan it for a nice sunny day. If you have any questions about future trips don't hesitate to drop me a PM.

[pickrel pat]

i will be doing this circuit this year. thx for posting....... got any more pics?

[Levy]

We did the same trip saturday sunday monday. Must have just missed you guys on jackson. The route we took was Jackson, McGuffin, Blackett, Kinnaird and we camped at McGuffin, and Blackett. Did you guys see the Otter hanging out around the Jackson campground? We saw him on the way in and on the way out. We had similar fishing success tons of pike, four walleye (non legal), and one perch (four inches). McGuffin was my favorite lake, crystal clear and a lot of fish. We couldn't locate the walleye in there though.

[timsesink]

Tons! Just a few decent ones. You can check out https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151769971040445.865158.563565444&type=3 for more :)

[timsesink]

We did see the otter! Walleye was tough, whenever we picked one up I tried to note the type of structure but it was so varied there was no no rhyme or reason. McGuffin is a nice lake and with very little access I think lots of fish, it was fun to watch the pike follow our spoons 20ft out, as you said crystal clear. How was the McGuffin campsite? We followed the eastern shore and did not get a chance to check it out.

[densa44]

What is the story on portage carts? They look like they would suit an older couple. My days of 3 km portages are over, Bowron Lakes was the last, son has grown up and moved out.

I see one group had a cart and the other did not. Can you tell us a bit more about how it all works?

[Saltmania]

Thanks for posting. I love this stuff. The Crooked River and Bowron Lakes in BC are on my list for the next couple seasons.

[BigRackLover]

Any perch? I'm going in August with the young family and looking for some perch action.

[timsesink]

I didn't see any but I have heard they are decent in there. Basically there are portage carts at every trail, you can do all the lakes except for McGuffin with only doing the first 3K portage. Many, many people choose to do that to avoid the Mcguffin-Blackett nastiness. Also be sure to have your PFD/bailer and all fishing regs followed as the CO's are out all the time.

[simmered]

Sounds like a good trip! Thanks for posting.

[DeanP]

I'm going out with a group of seven more guys; really looking fwd to it. We are going from 11-15 Jun. Were there lots of keeper pike?? It is good to know for meal planning. LOL

[timsesink]

Not many keepers on our trip at all. I would plan that there will no keepers caught and any that are serve as an awesome snack or meal supplement. For seven guys you need a lot of fish for a meal!

[Levy]

The campsites were great at McGuffin, one of them looked like it was starting to go wild but there were picnic tables, a fish cleaning table, an outhouse, and the dock was in good shape. The McGuffin campsite was a lot cleaner than the one we stayed at in Blackett. There were burnt barbecues, skidoo parts, tin foil everywhere, old fridge racks, etc... it looked like a garbage dump. Im thinking it was the same brainiacs i saw driving skidoos and quads up into that campsite during the winter. We cleaned it up a bit but someone needs to go in there with a quad trailer in the winter, or with an empty boat in the summer.

We were trying to figure out what that weird cart thing with the hole in it was at the 600m jackson mcguffin portage was... any ideas?

[Levy]

I'm going out with a group of seven more guys; really looking fwd to it. We are going from 11-15 Jun. Were there lots of keeper pike?? It is good to know for meal planning. LOL

We caught about four keeper pike in McGuffin, with the best luck in the south bay by the blackett portage. On the last day i wanted to troll on the way out of Jackson lake and caught three keepers in a row with a 9 inch blue rapala. I was getting them just north of the camping site timesink stayed at on jackson in about 8 ft of water. I don't know if it was the rapala or just the spot because we didn't see any keepers the first day we fished jackson but we were fishing from shore, on the south side of the lake.

[pickrel pat]

thanks guys! much for bear activity/sign?

[timsesink]

Sounds like you guys had some nice fish, we definitely had quantity but lacked quality! That south bay was exxcellent for us as well. As for the weird cart I was wondering the same thing, makes no sense. I really wish they made those lakes foot access and no motors, the garbage due to its nature is not from thr canoeists. No bears except for the one that ate my buddy.

[DeanP]

No bears except for the one that ate my buddy.

Ha! Ha! I guess this is where I lose seven team members!

Thanks for all of the info! I'm totally pumped now!

[Miles1996]

We were trying to figure out what that weird cart thing with the hole in it was at the 600m jackson mcguffin portage was... any ideas?

Ha!
I came up from Blackett and out of McGuffin to the north. Saw that weird cart at the dock and figured for some reason it was the portage cart and tried to use it. It was so top heavy that I kept losing it and finally gave up after about 200 yards. Just carried my stuff through the rest of that portage.

I did the loop solo last summer.
Portaged the Blackett to McGuffin segment via a double carry, didn't realise that there was a cart at the other end. Bugs were amazingly thick going through there. That was a character building portage.
The night on McGuffin was awesome though.

Going back in two weeks.

timsesink, I feel the same way, canoe tripping is the best. I would prefer the flatwater trips to the moving water. Would love to be closer to some of the stuff they have in Ontario.

[gwh2]

Lakeland is a great spot. Done it many times and we're going again in the next month or so. Pike, pickerel and perch are numerous. Bring extra garbage bags as it seems that the guy prior never cleans up after himself. They realy need to stop boaters and fat head quaders from getting in there as they are the major cause of it. We always come back with a full load.
The attitude has to change in this country if we want to keep places like this for our kids.(And I don't mean for Asians or South Asians)

[Coltye]

Lakeland is a great spot. Done it many times and we're going again in the next month or so. Pike, pickerel and perch are numerous. Bring extra garbage bags as it seems that the guy prior never cleans up after himself. They realy need to stop boaters and fat head quaders from getting in there as they are the major cause of it. We always come back with a full load.
The attitude has to change in this country if we want to keep places like this for our kids.(And I don't mean for Asians or South Asians)

Not to start anything but dont blame us qauders, its like everything else there are a few bad apples that wreck it. When we went with qauds and our boats we took out garbage that wasnt ours. So if anything give some of us credit as i doubt that the amount of garbage we took out you guys wouldnt be able to carry. Anyways yeh that is a great place to go and camping on the islands is the coolest thing ever.

[stand junkie]

Lakeland is a great spot. Done it many times and we're going again in the next month or so. Pike, pickerel and perch are numerous. Bring extra garbage bags as it seems that the guy prior never cleans up after himself. They realy need to stop boaters and fat head quaders from getting in there as they are the major cause of it. We always come back with a full load.
The attitude has to change in this country if we want to keep places like this for our kids.(And I don't mean for Asians or South Asians)

Quaders have nothing to do with it stupid people have all to do with it. When we were up last week we stoped at 3 different spots on jackson. Every one of them had a plastic bag full of garbage hanging from a tree and a couple of old fridge racks sitting around the fire pits. The only way places like this are going to stay nice is if us as outdoorsmen keep them clean. With that said I mean us outdoorsmen not the goofs that go out and leave sh-- all over the place and think that they are outdoorsmen.
I dont mean to rant but its true, this is one of my favorite spots to go and I hope that it stays thay way for the boaters and the back packers also