I see Moose Lake is part of the lottery. I don't really understand the how's and whys of it and whether or not I should be putting in for it. I'm planning on entering on September 23rd at Moose Lake, EP 25 from Canadian Border Outfitters with a tow up to the border where we can canoe the border to Knife. Do I need to put in for this lottery? I've never done this lottery before.

There's a ton of daily permits for EP25. I don't think I'd worry about getting one for that date. I wouldn't bother with the lottery myself. I'd just call when permits are available.

Lottery is mostly for motor permits I believe. A paddle permit for Moose in Sept should be easy to get when the regular permits open.

In the years I collected lottery results data, I found that around 70% of Moose permits remained available after the lottery and were open on the first day of general permitting. With your choice of a late September date, it should be even more wide open to you.

Here's a graphic I created after researching results of the lottery of January 2016:

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cowdoc: "Lottery is mostly for motor permits I believe. A paddle permit for Moose in Sept should be easy to get when the regular permits open."

I soon realized that is likely the case AFTER I applied for lottery for an overnight paddle out of Entry #24 in mid-June.

If you are going on or after Labor Day, you will have zero problems with your entry. Sept 23rd will be fine.

Thank you for the help, everyone. I will stop worrying now.

It doesn't cost you any more in the long run to try to get a Fall or Moose Lake overnight paddle permit in the lottery or wait for the January 31st live opening. Why not go into the lottery with just one or two possible choices. Then you'll hear if you got one, if not, then go into the live reservation time. But you could be done before January 31st!

I have to say I'm a bit confused as well on how the lottery works. (specifically EP25 for me)
It sounds like the lottery is mainly for OM, but OM uses up one OP allocation.
This is from the other thread on lottery info....

: "An overnight motor permit takes a paddle overnight for the Moose chain and a motor quota."

If that's the case I would think OM would use up all the allocations and you wouldn't have that many paddling out of Moose Lake.

cowdoc: "Lottery is mostly for motor permits I believe. A paddle permit for Moose in Sept should be easy to get when the regular permits open."

I was assuming that since EP25 is a lottery drawing that all allocations would be taken during the lottery, that's why it's a lottery, more folks applying than permits available. But this statement alludes that any unused OP permits for EP25 will be available first come first serve like the other non-lottery permits for the other entry points. Is this accurate?
The chart that was posted in this thread also shows that there are almost -0- dates where all of the permits are used up during the lottery. This would support cowdoc's statement that OP EP25 permits are available after the lottery.

So, I guess if I don't get either of my lottery choices for EP25 then I should be calling in on Jan 31 and still requesting an OP for EP25 for the same entry date? Is that correct?
Sorry for the long post, just trying to get my head wrapped around this process.
Thanks for any info you can share!

Turns out that I may have misled some folks with my chart. These are the OVERNIGHT permits (both motor and paddle, combined) for EPs 24 and 25 that remained available on the first day that the general reservation system opened.

If you are after a DAY MOTOR permit for the Fall Lake or Moose Lake entries (D, F, or G), maybe you do want to put in a lottery application. If this wasn't the final year of this system, I might be tempted to compile the data on day motor permits taken by lottery and create a proper chart. We'll see.

My full mea culpa is in another ongoing lottery thread.