Elbow Lake

Elbow Lake covers about 1,695 acres in St. Louis County, a few miles southeast of Orr and roughly 16 miles from the nearest BWCA entry point. It falls within the La Croix Ranger District of the Superior National Forest, but the lake itself sits well outside the wilderness boundary. No portage connects it to the interior canoe country, so this is a lake you drive to and launch a boat on rather than one you paddle into.

The shoreline runs rocky and irregular, broken up by numerous islands, and the water carries the bog-stained color typical of Canadian Shield country: low in fertility, with clarity that usually runs 5 to 8 feet through the season. It drops to 60 feet at its deepest point, though only about 40 percent of the lake bottom is shallow enough to hold weed growth, so much of the basin is open water between the islands.

Walleye and northern pike carry the fishery, backed by smallmouth bass and a mix of panfish. Walleye numbers lean heavily on regular fingerling stocking, since natural reproduction alone isn't enough to hold up the population on its own. Lake whitefish run unusually large for the species, often topping 20 inches, in the lake's cold, well-oxygenated deep water. Yellow perch have stayed scarce for decades, so don't expect them to be much of a factor here.

Two public boat launches serve the lake, one at the end of Elbow Lake State Forest Road and another on the southwest end off a county road. Elbow Lake Lodge and a scatter of private cabins line parts of the shore, and motors are allowed across the lake. There's no wilderness campsite system here: no sites are mapped on Elbow Lake, and most people fishing it stay at the lodge or in a cabin rather than camping on the water.

Elbow Lake suits a resort fishing trip more than a wilderness paddle. It's developed, motorized water well outside the BWCA boundary, without the portages or permit system that define the lakes to its east.