Heading to Saganagons for my first Q trip this spring. Already diving into planning my next adventure as I have no doubt I will want to come back almost immediately.

So here is a question for you seasoned Quetico vets. If you had six days in late May with fishing being the primary goal - but also with respect to scenery/campsites/etc - where would you choose and why?

Agnes-Louisa-McEwen Chain, thank me later.

ISRO: "Agnes-Louisa-McEwen Chain, thank me later."

Toss in Kawnipi and fishing below all the falls on the chain and this is a complete loop.

There was a large fire in Quetico in the fall of 2021. The Argo/Darky area was impacted somewhat. See the map below. Prior to the fire I'd recommend either. We are doing the Man Chain-Falls Chain-McEwen-Louisa loop out of Prairie Portage this Spring. The next trip will likely be to spend 5-6 days exploring and fishing Kawnipi.

Definitely The Agnes route, very scenic, great fishing and falls. A lot of scorched earth with the other route, although it too has great fishing.

plander: "There was a large fire in Quetico in the fall of 2021. The Argo/Darky area was impacted somewhat. See the map below. Prior to the fire I'd recommend either. We are doing the Man Chain-Falls Chain-McEwen-Louisa loop out of Prairie Portage this Spring. The next trip will likely be to spend 5-6 days exploring and fishing Kawnipi.


"

We start on this loop June 6th. I’m expecting a great trip!

WilyMinnow: "Heading to Saganagons for my first Q trip this spring. Already diving into planning my next adventure as I have no doubt I will want to come back almost immediately.

So here is a question for you seasoned Quetico vets. If you had six days in late May with fishing being the primary goal - but also with respect to scenery/campsites/etc - where would you choose and why? "

My opinion is affected by the recent fire in the southwest part of Quetico, similarly to others here. The southwestern part of Quetico is one of my favorites. Lots of very clear lakes, great trout fishing, and solitude. It’s a real shame it burned. I’ll definitely go back, especially now that I’ve seen a couple YouTube videos of that area since the burn. Some spots are scorched earth, but lots of areas are more moderate where a good number of trees remain. But Argo wasn’t nearly as affected as some lakes a bit further east at least.

Argo has one of the best lake trout reputations of any lake in the Q. Agnes has a great population of lake trout as well, especially further north in the lake. I’ve caught trout in both of them personally, and I don’t think you could go wrong with either.

One advantage to Argo is that it has more areas that would be protected from the wind. If you’re on the northern part of Agnes and the wind is whipping, that would be a tough situation to fish from a canoe.

I’ve basically talked myself back into going back to Argo in the next few years from this post. I started the post thinking I was going to say Agnes! Haha

Here’s a photo of the first fish caught on our 2023 trip, an Agnes laker.