Wood Lake Boat Rentals

Sometime during your week’s stay, you may want to rent a Wood Lake boat or canoe from Northwind Lodge and spend a day on Wood Lake. Wood is a 454 acre lake in the motorless region of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. No motors are allowed or present and there are no aluminum cans or glass bottles allowed.  A day-use permit is required and they are available at no cost right at the trail head.  Wood Lake will have no man-made developments on it and there never have been any there.   It is true wilderness and will take a whole day to fish.

The portage into Wood is 210 rods long despite what you may read on the maps.  That is .58 miles of a trail in rocky, hilly and sometimes muddy, terrain.   It is not a terrible hike and you can stop to rest as needed.

I grew up fishing on Wood and guided day fishing trips there for about 25 years. My first guided trip was on Wood Lake at the age of 14 when motors where still allowed and we used to carry them in on our shoulder. My dad and grandfather both guided countless trips on Wood Lake as well.   We have a LOT of history there.

If you do decide to go Wood for a fishing trip, for practicality purposes, plan on making a day of it.   It is best to leave at about 8 AM so you should get your Wood Lake key and oars the night before. Plan on a moderately difficult portage that is all downhill into the lake and all uphill back to the parking lot. Each Wood Lake boat fits 2-3 adults comfortably. You will also need to bring a lunch, something to drink (plastic bottles are OK, but if you pack it in, you gotta pack it out. That also applies to cigarette butts in the boat, fishing tackle wrappers and the like.)  Please make sure that before you leave for the day,  you throw all weeds and dead bait OUT of the boat as well pick up and bring home your empty bait containers.

WARNING: The surest way for us to ban you from ever renting one of our conveniently located boats on a fantastic fishing lake is to leave the boat a disgusting mess.   We’re not kidding. “Pig up” the boat and you’ll never get to rent it again no matter how hard the walleyes are biting.  Sorry, but “blunt” works the best.

Wood Lake boats and canoes are available only for registered Northwind Lodge cabin guests.   Sorry, but even if you stayed at Northwind Lodge years ago and happen to be in the area but are not a currently registered cabin guest, the watercraft are not available for rental.