Silver Island Lake

Silver Island Lake covers about 1,239 acres in the Tofte district, roughly 10 miles northeast of Isabella. It carries a Superior National Forest district tag, but the lake itself sits outside the wilderness boundary: the main way in is a forest road to a concrete boat ramp next to an eight-site U.S. Forest Service campground, not a portage from a wilderness entry point.

At only 16 feet at its deepest, Silver Island is a shallow lake through and through, with nearly all of its acreage shallow enough to grow weeds or hide the boulders scattered across the bottom. Some of those boulders break the surface and others sit just beneath it, and the dark, bog-stained water makes them hard to spot, so anyone running a motor here needs to watch closely.

Walleye are the main draw, though growth is slow and most fish take years to reach a decent size; one caught in 2020 ran to 26.6 inches. Northern pike and black crappie round out the fishery, with pike occasionally topping 30 inches and crappie numbers that have historically been decent even in years when nets come up light. Lake whitefish are common enough that Silver Island is open to a fall whitefish netting season, on top of the usual rod-and-reel fishing.

Access here is built for a drive-in trip rather than a paddle-in one. Besides the boat ramp by the campground, there's a carry-in access to a sandy beach on the south shore and a portage from T Lake on the northeast end. Five campsites are mapped around the lake, some reachable only by boat, but this isn't the permit-and-quota system that governs camping inside the wilderness. Motors are allowed across the lake.

Silver Island suits a weekend out of a Forest Service campground, boat fishing for walleye and crappie, more than a wilderness paddling trip. It sits close to the BWCAW's edge without being part of the portage network that defines travel inside it.