Gull Lake Chain of Lakes

[ivanho]

Hi All,

We're staying on Lake Nisswa in the Brainerd Lakes area in Minnesota. Wondering if we can take our 226 all the way to Gull Lake.

Looks like the channel from Roy Lake to Spider Lake is pretty shallow.

Anyone have experience with this area?

[Snowman8]

Yes you can, I have done it many times in the past. You are correct it is shallow but it is passable. Roy Lake to Spider Lake then to Upper Gull. Watch for MNLakebum when you get down on Gull Lake! I’m sure he will chime in shortly.

How long are you up there for? I have also spent quite a bit of time on the Whitefish chain of lakes near Cross Lake. You would have to trailer over there but we really enjoy that chain of lakes also. We live about an hour and a half from Brainerd.

[ivanho]

Thanks for confirming! We towed the kids around and swam a bit, but stuck to Nisswa and Roy lakes today.

We plan to explore the entire chain tomorrow.

[sailor55330]

I have friends who live on Nisswa. I have taken my r3 through all of those channels dozens of times. The channels are all idle speed and the average depth is about 3ft so you can make it easily with a little trim. There is one thin spot between Nisswa and Roy right at the entrance to Roy from Nisswa. You will see the sign that says idle speed no wake. I usually trim up and put the drive in neutral and coast through. You want to stay closer to the port side where the point and rocks are—it’s seems contrary but it’s the deepest side. Good news is all channels are silt bottom so not s lot of prop killers.

Roy to spider is deeper than Nisswa to Roy. Once you get on roy, watch for the sand bar marker about 3/4 south of the Nisswa channel. It shoals up like a shelf from 40ft to 3ft instantaneously. It’s marked by a floating buoy and you’ll see the boats. Give that some room. I never got much past upper gull other than a time or two so I’ll leave that to Bum

Go slow, trim up, stay in the middle and your fine. Navionics and Cmaos are pretty good in this areas

Now, at night, it’s a little trickier

You should be fine.