Elbow Lake

How big is Elbow Lake?

How deep is Elbow Lake?

What kind of fish can you catch in Elbow Lake?

Are there places to eat and drink near Elbow Lake?

Elbow Lake is a 528 acre lake in western Cook County located approximately 14 miles northwest of Schroeder. It is part of the Timber Frear Loop, a canoe route maintained by the Forest Service with several remote camp sites and portage trails between lakes. This canoe route provides a less regulated area where visitors can use motors and other equipment not allowed in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. There is no direct road access to Elbow Lake, so anglers must use one of four portages from the surrounding lakes. The best way for anglers to access the lake is to park at the Whitefish Lake campground and access then paddle along the north shore of Whitefish Lake to a 74 rod portage to the southwest corner of Elbow Lake. There are four backcountry campsites located on Elbow Lake available on a first come first serve basis.

A lake survey was conducted on Elbow Lake during the summer of 2022 to assess the status of the Walleye and Northern Pike populations along with the fish community as a whole. The 2022 Walleye catch was above the normal range for similar lakes throughout the state. It was much higher than the catch in the 2015 survey, but similar to catches from other historic surveys completed on the lake. The average length of Walleye sampled was almost 15 inches with the longest fish measuring 21 inches. They ranged in age from one to 18 with few missing ages suggesting that Walleye spawn successfully most years. In late August when the survey took place, age-3 Walleye had an average length of 13 inches. Anglers are unlikely to catch a trophy Walleye in Elbow Lake however, there are good numbers of eater sized fish present.

Northern Pike catch during the 2022 survey was near average relative to similar lakes throughout the state and within the range observed in previous surveys of the lake. Pike had an average length of 23 inches with the longest fish measuring 31 inches. As with Walleye, anglers are unlikely to catch large pike in Elbow Lake however, there are sufficient numbers of eater sized pike for anglers to target.

Yellow Perch catch was much higher than similar lakes across the state and the highest catch ever recorded on Elbow Lake. The average length of perch was just over six inches however, only one perch longer than eight inches was sampled. Despite good numbers of perch in Elbow Lake it is unlikely many anglers will be interested in targeting them due to their small size structure; they are more important as a forage species. White Sucker are another important forage species in the lake and were sampled in average numbers relative to similar lakes across the state. Other species sampled were Johnny Darter, Golden Shiner, Northern Pearl Dace, and Tadpole Madtom.

Are there any state parks near Elbow Lake?