East Bearskin Lake

East Bearskin Lake covers about 593 acres in the Gunflint district of the Boundary Waters, in Cook County roughly 30 miles north of Grand Marais. It's also an entry point in its own right, with a Forest Service landing on its western bay, unlike most of the lakes it connects to that are reached only after a portage.

The lake runs deep for its size. It drops to 66 feet, but only about a quarter of the basin is shallow enough to fish from the surface down, and the rest holds cold water year round. What's there is clear, soft water, clear enough to make out structure well below the surface.

Walleye and smallmouth bass are what most anglers come for. Walleye are stocked here, and enough of them reproduce naturally that a mixed class turns up in the population, with good growth. Smallmouth hold in smaller numbers by net counts, though anglers report finding more of them than that suggests. Northern pike show up too, in modest numbers, with an occasional fish growing to real size.

Three campsites sit on the lake, none of them closed, a small number for a lake this size and this close to a landing.

Portages fan out from East Bearskin toward several neighboring lakes, with a shorter carry reaching Alder Lake and longer, tougher carries running to Aspen Lake and Moon Lake. Motors are permitted on this stretch of water, a contrast to most of the lakes beyond it, where only paddles and portages get you through.

East Bearskin sits differently than most Gunflint district lakes reached only by portage. It has a motorized landing right on its shore, only three campsites for a lake of its size, and cold, deep water that draws as much attention from anglers as from paddlers passing through.