On September 1, 2001, my fishing buddy Mike and I took a trip into Crocodile Lake in the BWCA. This was a short trip, just three days total, but a good trip nonetheless. Here is a collection of photos and commentary for those who are interested. For the most part, this trip was about getting away for a few days of fishing. Pure and simple.

I've included comments on my equipment and methods for those who take an interest in that sort of thing.

This trip to Crocodile was another of those trips that was planned on short notice. As the Labor Day weekend approached I found my wife and kids were planning a three day trip to Gramma's house.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind visiting the in-laws. However, there's something about the winding down of summer that always makes me want to squeeze in one last trip to the BW. But still....you shouldn't really pass on the trip to Gramma's just so you can have the opportunity for one last meal of fresh caught walleye....should you?
After several days of listening to me hemm and haw my wife finally came to me with a suggestion: "Why don't you see if you can squeeze in one last trip to the BW?"
"Honey, you're brilliant!. What a great idea!" I replied.

It was the start of a plan...I called my buddy Mike.....he made his arrangements. It was a "go". Now we needed a place to "go" to. An eleventh-hour check of the BW reservation website showed slim pickings. The upcoming holiday weekend is usually one of the busiest of the year. There weren't many overnight permits. I searched and double-searched the available listings. Of the few remaining permits only one entry point appealed to me: Crocodile Lake.

The drive up the North Shore was uneventful. After a quick stop along the way for a couple of sodas and a fistful of fast food we found ourselves heading north again on the old familiar Gunflint Trail

By mid-morning on Saturday of Labor Day weekend we had slid the canoe into East Bearskin Lake and were paddling east to the Crocodile Lake portage.

I've been to Crocodile many times since my first visit in about 1980. Back then a friend and I, in our continual quest for new walleye waters, had had been going over the DNR stocking reports and found that the state had planted a gazillion walleye fingerlings and fry a few years earlier. We made the trip and fished Croc for a couple of days. We didn't locate any walleyes back then but we did latch onto some nice largemouth bass. I've got some old photos in my book of a younger and trimmer me holding bass in the five pound range.

The present-day photo above was taken at the beginning of the portage into Crocodile. Another of my old photos, taken decades ago, shows me standing in the same spot and leaning against one of the old carved wooden portage signs the Forest Service used to post at portages, "CROCODILE LAKE, 120 Rds." The sign is long gone, as are the two portage rests the FS used to maintain on the trail. I still recall that first trip over that portage. Although the distance is only in the 120-rod range, Crocodile sits 110 feet higher than East Bearskin. Most all of that 110 foot climb is in the first 30 rods. It is definitely a heart pumper.

Crocodile Lake is different from many lakes in the BW in that it doesn't lend itself to any kind of trip loop. It's a dead-end lake. It's a lake you go to, not through. There is one way in, one way out, and you can't get anywhere else once you're in. Some maps show a portage trail out on the east side. I've looked for it and never found it. If it's there somewhere it leads out of the BW into some pretty desolate country and through shallow lakes with no fish, the so-called "vegetable lakes": Bean, Parsnip, Carrot, etc. Makes sense to me, no meat to be had, only vegetables. According to the Forest Service in Grand Marais, there's now only one entry into Crocodile.

Only one overnight permit per day is allotted to Crocodile, but that doesn't mean the lake isn't heavily used. I've counted as many as ten canoes visible on the lake at one time. East Bearskin Lake has many cabins and homes along the portions of it's shores that are outside the BW. There is a large campground on East Bearskin and at least one resort so Crocodile gets a lot of day-trip use. It's not uncommon to see motorboats tied up at the portage to Crocodile. Some of those boats have pulled canoes across the lake and their owners have portaged into Croc for a day of fishing. I know, though, that some of those boaters have cached their canoe in the brush near the portage on the Crocodile side to avoid having to carry a canoe over each time they visit. Forest Service regulations prohibit caching boats in the BW, but it's a practice that has been going on for as long as there have been people,portages, and canoes. I don't think it will ever end.

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