I'm thinking of picking Wood Lake as the EP for our late June trip. Just the wife and me, looking for a semi-leisurely basecamp trip of 3 nights.

We've gone in at a dozen other Ely-side EPs over the years; I can't believe we've missed, or ignored, this one.

I've searched a bit here, enough to see that there are some decent sites on Wood itself, not that many beyond until Basswood, good walleye fishing on Wood, super clear water on Indiana, etc.

Any thoughts from your recent trips through there? Likes and dislikes? Are there 4 -- or 5 -- sites on Wood? (some maps disagree) And would you figure on lots of site competition or traffic on this 1-portage entry lake for a mid-week trip in late June?

Wood can be busy because there just aren't many sites, but I do think there are officially 5 of them. The island site on the southern part of the lake isn't shown on all maps, but it is definitely a site that was occupied when we've gone by it in the past on 2 separate trips.

Last year when we entered, all the sites were occupied on our way in (we planned to stay on Good so this wasn't an issue for us), and we took the only open site on our last night on our way out. We were lucky as the people leaving it just happened to be packing up when we passed (late morning). The 2 groups that entered from the EP came in later that day to find no sites open on the lake. If Wood is full, both sites on Good Lake are average or better, although I much prefer the one on the narrows if you don't mind the climb up from the lake and the not-so great canoe landing area. We had the lake to ourselves for 3 days in early August, other than 1 canoe that portaged in to fish from Indiana, and 3 canoes each day coming through from Basswood back towards Wood.

I really like the lakes in that area because they are all so different from each other, and overall are fairly quiet lakes. You will hear some motor noise from Basswood, but this doesn't bother me or any of the people I trip with. The day trip opportunities to Basswood are also great and the fishing on all the lakes (Basswood, Indiana, Wood, Good) has been solid even in August. I can share more of those details with you by email if you're interested.

I've soloed into Wood Lake in the past. I base-camped on the site in the northwest part of the lake adjacent the portage to Hulu Lake. It was a nice site. The only problem was that through-paddlers passed the site on the way to the portage. And, as has become the norm in the "me first" times we are in, made lots of noise. One girl was singing the "99 bottles of beer on the wall" song as she paddled the bow with her partner. IIRC, she was on 80, and made it to 74 before she was out of earshot.

There are lots of areas to explore in the vicinity, to include Hoist Bay and Indiana Lake, the latter known for very clear water.

Mike

Been through here twice. First time up north we went in at this ep. We slayed the walleyes all week. Stayed at the campsite by the portage out of the lake. Went back a few years later after I had two back surgeries. Was an easy trip. As I recall, that year we had a mayfly hatch and the fishing was tough. We did murder the hammer handle pike and had a blast tossing top water Ribbits in the back bay. Fun little lake.

Another easy fun trip in that area is to go in at Moose and take the one portage into Wind. We’ve murdered the smallmouth in there. Never really found many walleyes. Think I might prefer Wind to Wood if just relaxing and horsing around.

Way to busy for me.

Thanks, all. We decided to switch our focus to a return trip to Moose River North...