Bald Eagle Lake

Bald Eagle Lake sits inside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, about 15 miles southeast of Ely in the Kawishiwi district. At 1,243 acres, it's a hub where several waterways meet: six inlets feed into it, the Little Isabella and Snake rivers arrive from the south, and the lake drains northwest through the Isabella River on its way to the South Kawishiwi River. That much moving water keeps the shoreline broken into bays and points rather than one open sweep.

Reaching it isn't always simple. A route in from Gabbro Lake on the northeast corner can sometimes be paddled straight through if water levels are high, though a short portage around shallow rapids is often needed instead. Getting beyond Bald Eagle toward Turtle Lake or the stream leading to Gull Lake means a much longer carry, 141 rods one way and 211 rods the other, both rated difficult, which keeps casual traffic from pushing past the lake in those directions.

Boulder dominates the lake bottom, with muck settling into quieter bays along the shore. Aquatic plants stay sparse across most of the lake, but the muck-bottomed bays hold patches of wild rice and water lilies where the water slows down enough for them to take hold.

Walleye are the most common catch, though the bog-stained water slows their growth, so most run small even at several years old. Northern pike do better here, with fish pushing past 30 inches showing up regularly, and black crappie have put up some of the best numbers on record for the lake. Smallmouth bass are around too, elusive enough that they rarely turn up in survey nets, but anglers who target them do fine.

Twelve campsites are spread around the lake, giving paddlers plenty of room even with routes converging here from several directions. A permit is required to enter through any of the connecting entry points, and the lake itself is non-motorized like the rest of the wilderness around it.

With water arriving and leaving from six different directions and a pair of difficult portages guarding the far shore, Bald Eagle works well as a junction lake, a place travelers pass through and often camp at, rather than a dead-end destination.