How did y'all do? System would't let me on til 9:05 but worked well after that. Pulled a handful of Clearwater and Saganaga day motor permits for my June trip, and a couple of Clearwaters for the last week of permit and lake trout season as well.

Crazy how fast the basswood permits go! Day motor permits totally gone for the season as of 940am, probably sooner.

thegildedgopher: "How did y'all do? System would't let me on til 9:05 but worked well after that. Pulled a handful of Clearwater and Saganaga day motor permits for my June trip, and a couple of Clearwaters for the last week of permit and lake trout season as well.

Crazy how fast the basswood permits go! Day motor permits totally gone for the season as of 940am, probably sooner."

In another thread someone stated that all 1,315 day use permits for Basswood were gone in 24 minutes.

I got all the day use I wanted, lucked out again!

Harv: "

thegildedgopher: "How did y'all do? System would't let me on til 9:05 but worked well after that. Pulled a handful of Clearwater and Saganaga day motor permits for my June trip, and a couple of Clearwaters for the last week of permit and lake trout season as well.


Crazy how fast the basswood permits go! Day motor permits totally gone for the season as of 940am, probably sooner."

In another thread someone stated that all 1,315 day use permits for Basswood were gone in 24 minutes.


I got all the day use I wanted, lucked out again!"

Our group had 2 or 3 minute delays as well. Tech savvy member had day use motor for basswood gone for entire season at 9:17.

Ended up with a couple extra day use motor for moose-basswood, which our outfitter will appreciate. Now we can all go back to important stuff, like figuring out new lures to buy that we won't need or use.

Harv: "

thegildedgopher: "How did y'all do? System would't let me on til 9:05 but worked well after that. Pulled a handful of Clearwater and Saganaga day motor permits for my June trip, and a couple of Clearwaters for the last week of permit and lake trout season as well.


Crazy how fast the basswood permits go! Day motor permits totally gone for the season as of 940am, probably sooner."

In another thread someone stated that all 1,315 day use permits for Basswood were gone in 24 minutes.


I got all the day use I wanted, lucked out again!"

Same, I got all I wanted. Something doesn't seem right about the Basswood permits. They need to do an audit of those permits and publicly share the usage stats.

Another thing I'm wondering about is the inconsistency of quota numbers from week to week. How are those numbers decided on? For example, the last week in May there are 154 DM permits for Sag, and only 90 for the first week in June. Week of August 15th is down to 47, the very next week its 82. These are not permits available, these are the total quota numbers. The last couple weeks of the permit season, only 10 are available for Sag. So why can the lake support 15x the number of motor boats on May 25 -vs- Sep 25?

illini79ps:"Ended up with a couple extra day use motor for moose-basswood, which our outfitter will appreciate. Now we can all go back to important stuff, like figuring out new lures to buy that we won't need or use."

Can you clarify? Why will your outfitter appreciate?

thegildedgopher :

If I had to guess...
They are protecting walleye spawning in the spring.
Lake Trout spawning in 1st Oct (if it was early).

But, i have no clue, and that is just a swag.

SammyN: " thegildedgopher :

If I had to guess...
They are protecting walleye spawning in the spring.
Lake Trout spawning in 1st Oct (if it was early).

But, i have no clue, and that is just a swag."

It's a thought, but I would personally have to disagree with this. The DNR is responsible with managing fish populations and they set fishing seasons and various special regulations to protect the spawn. The USFS is in charge of managing the wilderness and access to it.

Besides the numbers don't add up. The big drop is from the last week of May (154 quota for Sag) to the first week in June (90 quota) -- that's weeks clear of Walleye spawn. And then only 47 quota Mid-August? No spawn happening then.

Pulled one for Homer Lake with no problems

Same, I got all I wanted. Something doesn't seem right about the Basswood permits. They need to do an audit of those permits and publicly share the usage stats

I was able to get an Overnight Motor permit for Basswood, but agree that it would be interesting to know the usage stats for these. As I said in another thread, we noticed last year there were many nice campsites empty on the weekend in mid-May on Basswood. Seems like the issuing stations should be able to provide the information on how many permits were not picked up.

gvpant: "

Same, I got all I wanted. Something doesn't seem right about the Basswood permits. They need to do an audit of those permits and publicly share the usage stats

I was able to get an Overnight Motor permit for Basswood, but agree that it would be interesting to know the usage stats for these. As I said in another thread, we noticed last year there were many nice campsites empty on the weekend in mid-May on Basswood. Seems like the issuing stations should be able to provide the information on how many permits were not picked up."

I think it would take a FOIA request to the USFS to get real numbers. I've read different numbers in different places -- 25% up to 38% that don't get picked up, but there's never any official source or data given to back that up. During the whole process of getting rid of the lottery, I saw quotes from USFS using unused permits as one reason for change. They know there's a lot that don't get used, and they thought it was because people applied for more than they needed to increase their odds in the lottery, and then would just sit on the extras if they got more than they needed. My hunch is that unused permits actually increased last year from years past, but I don't have the data to support that.

The cost is ridiculously small as well. $6/day for a permit that gets 4 boats/9 people into the wilderness? That's one beer at trail center for crying out loud. It would cost me more to stay in a nice cabin at a lodge on the gunflint trail for a single night than it would to reserve ALL of the DM permits for one lake an entire month.

To be clear -- I applauded the retirement of the lottery and in general I think the new system is great. It just seems like, especially now that it's ALL in a database, there should be some pretty simple methods of limiting permit hoarding, none of which seem to be being discussed by USFS?

thegildedgopher: "

gvpant: "

Same, I got all I wanted. Something doesn't seem right about the Basswood permits. They need to do an audit of those permits and publicly share the usage stats

I was able to get an Overnight Motor permit for Basswood, but agree that it would be interesting to know the usage stats for these. As I said in another thread, we noticed last year there were many nice campsites empty on the weekend in mid-May on Basswood. Seems like the issuing stations should be able to provide the information on how many permits were not picked up."

I think it would take a FOIA request to the USFS to get real numbers. I've read different numbers in different places -- 25% up to 38% that don't get picked up, but there's never any official source or data given to back that up. During the whole process of getting rid of the lottery, I saw quotes from USFS using unused permits as one reason for change. They know there's a lot that don't get used, and they thought it was because people applied for more than they needed to increase their odds in the lottery, and then would just sit on the extras if they got more than they needed. My hunch is that unused permits actually increased last year from years past, but I don't have the data to support that.


The cost is ridiculously small as well. $6/day for a permit that gets 4 boats/9 people into the wilderness? That's one beer at trail center for crying out loud. It would cost me more to stay in a nice cabin at a lodge on the gunflint trail for a single night than it would to reserve ALL of the DM permits for one lake an entire month.

To be clear -- I applauded the retirement of the lottery and in general I think the new system is great. It just seems like, especially now that it's ALL in a database, there should be some pretty simple methods of limiting permit hoarding, none of which seem to be being discussed by USFS?"

I agree, that unused permits possibly increased last year and also agree on the cost, if it was more or there was a refundable deposit, people that couldn't use their permits would be more likely to cancel them properly so they could be made available again.

I would be a fan of , if you don't pick up your permit by say 1000am ,they can release it to the public on a 1st come basis.

yogi59weedr: "I would be a fan of , if you don't pick up your permit by say 1000am ,they can release it to the public on a 1st come basis."

That would certainly benefit those who are nearby or stay for a big chunk of time like yourself and can check for permits at 10am every day, but not so well for folks like me who might not get there til 3pm but still plan to fish the night bite that evening with one of my DM permits?

The best I’ve come up with is everyone gets a personal quota. Let’s say 15 day motor permits every year. If you let a permit go unused, that gets subtracted from next year’s quota.

With prairie Portage closing at 7pm there is no night bite.

yogi59weedr: "With prairie Portage closing at 7pm there is no night bite."

True. If you made separate rules for the basswood EP’s that might work. I was speaking in regards to ALL day motor permits. We typically roll into Clearwater around 12-1pm, grab permits, get settled in the bunkhouse, eat an early supper, and go night trolling for Lakers that first night.

I bought all the permits for July for Mudro...probably still wont find a site on Fourtown.

Bushman: "I bought all the permits for July for Mudro...probably still wont find a site on Fourtown. "

:) Good for you Bushman! Did you get some day use motor permits for Basswood? I did fairly well; got every day/week I wanted for the summer.

Harv: "

Bushman: "I bought all the permits for July for Mudro...probably still wont find a site on Fourtown. "

:) Good for you Bushman! Did you get some day use motor permits for Basswood? I did fairly well; got every day/week I wanted for the summer."

LOL Nope no motors for me. The Mudro permits already cost me a small fortune! LMAO

Bushman I can’t tell if you’re joking. Are you for real admitting to taking more permits than you need to try to buy solitude?

To me, I think 4 boats for one permit is to many. I'm thinking if they cut that in half you could double the number of permits and still have the same amount of boats
Like myself, I usually only have 1 boat. So my permit is being under utilized. For that matter, they could make day use motor permits all one boat only. Again, this would still have the same number of boats, but more people receiving permits.