Best lakes in Minnesota

What best means here

Minnesota has no official list of its best lakes, so this page ranks them four ways from DNR records, each by one rule stated with its list. Clearest water with a public access: Caribou Lake. Most trailer launches on big water: Vermilion Lake. Fish netted above normal for four of five kinds: six lakes, the largest Rice Lake. Clearest with carry-in access only: Echo Lake.

Every lake on every list has at least one site in the DNR’s record of public water accesses; 1,901 of Minnesota’s 14,174 lakes of 10 acres or more do. The lists are not added together and no lake gets a score. Each list shows the figures it was ranked on, and a lake’s own page on this site, where it has one, prints the same figures.

Minnesota DNR public water accesses, via the Metropolitan Council’s data mirror, fetched 15 Oct 2026. Lakes counted by our Minnesota lake count’s rule: Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, hydrography (lake, pond, reservoir and mine-pit lake classes), via the Metropolitan Council’s data mirror. Fetched 26 Oct 2026.

Clear water

The rule: the average of every measured Secchi reading, for lakes with at least 5 readings in at least three years, one of them 2016 or later, and at least one public access site. It is the rule of our clearest lakes in Minnesota guide, with the access added: 392 of its 466 ranked lakes have one.

Caribou Lake in Itasca County leads at 30.8 ft over 6 readings, then Clearwater Lake (Cook County, 27.3 ft) and Stony Lake (Cass County, 22.8 ft). Four of the clearest guide’s top ten have no site in the access record and are left off here: Mahnomen, Alstead & Arco Mine, Mountain Lake, Crappie Lake and West Pike Lake.

Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and volunteer Secchi readings, via Minnesota DNR LakeFinder, fetched 26 Oct 2026. Access: Minnesota DNR public water accesses, via the Metropolitan Council’s data mirror, fetched 15 Oct 2026. Acres: Minnesota DNR hydrography, fetched 26 Oct 2026.

Fishing

The rule: in the lake’s latest DNR standard survey, from 2017 or later, the DNR’s nets caught more of at least three of five fish than the normal range for lakes of its class: walleye, northern pike and yellow perch in gill nets, black crappie and bluegill in trap nets, each counted only where four or more nets of that kind were set. Most above normal first; a tie goes to the larger lake. It is the test of our walleye lakes guide, run on all five fish.

1,411 lakes have a survey counted by these rules for at least one of the five fish, and 673 for all five. 42 pass the rule; 37 of those have a public access. Six of them netted above normal for four of the five; the largest is Rice Lake in Stearns County, above normal for walleye, pike, perch and crappie in 2024. Next come North Center Lake (walleye, pike, crappie and bluegill) and Bear Head Lake (walleye, pike, crappie and bluegill). Basswood Lake (Lake County, 4 of 5), Perent Lake (Lake County, 3 of 5) and Sand Lake (St. Louis County, 3 of 5) pass the rule but have no site in the access record.

A net catch is a reading of one survey, not a promise of what an angler will catch. Each lake’s year is shown.

Under each name, each fish’s catch per net and how it reads against normal (“above”, “normal” or “below”), then the lake’s public accesses. “Above” counts the fish over the normal range; “Year” is the survey’s.

Minnesota DNR Fisheries standard lake surveys, via LakeFinder, fetched 26 Oct 2026; catch per net against DNR’s normal range for lakes of the same class. “Not counted”: no catch of that fish, or fewer than four nets of its kind, in that survey. Access: Minnesota DNR public water accesses, via the Metropolitan Council’s data mirror, fetched 15 Oct 2026.

Big water

The rule: lakes of 1,000 acres or more, ranked by how many of their public access sites have a trailer launch; a tie goes to the larger lake. 299 Minnesota lakes cover 1,000 acres or more and 254 have at least one trailer launch.

Vermilion Lake in St. Louis County has the most, 14, then Mille Lacs Lake (11) and Leech Lake (11). The largest lake with no trailer launch in the record is Red Lake (Beltrami County, 283,813 acres). Big Stone Lake, Lake of the Woods and Rainy Lake cross the state line; acres are the Minnesota part and launches the Minnesota record’s.

Launch method: Minnesota DNR public water accesses, via the Metropolitan Council’s data mirror, fetched 15 Oct 2026. Acres: Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, hydrography (lake, pond, reservoir and mine-pit lake classes), via the Metropolitan Council’s data mirror. Fetched 26 Oct 2026. Border waters: Minnesota part.

Carry-in lakes

The rule: the same clear-water ranking, for lakes where every public access site in the DNR record is a carry-in, with no trailer launch. 330 lakes of 10 acres or more have public access only by carry-in; 40 of them pass the clear-water rule.

Echo Lake in Lake County leads at 20.6 ft, then Mayhew Lake (19.5 ft) and Trout Lake (18.6 ft). Carry-in describes the public access, not the lake: a boat can still come in from a private landing or a resort, and a lake’s motor rules are set elsewhere. Check the DNR’s rules before you go.

Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and volunteer Secchi readings, via Minnesota DNR LakeFinder, fetched 26 Oct 2026. Access and launch method: Minnesota DNR public water accesses, via the Metropolitan Council’s data mirror, fetched 15 Oct 2026.

On more than one list

Three lakes are on two or more of the lists above: Rainy Lake (fishing and big water), Lake Minnetonka (fishing and big water) and Burntside Lake (clear water and big water). The 53 lakes on the lists lie in 24 counties; Cook County has the most, 10, then St. Louis (7), Cass (5) and Crow Wing (4). 22 of the 53 have a lake page on this site, linked by name. Carry-in lakes are drawn from the clear-water ranking, so a lake on those two lists alone is not counted twice here.

The four lists above. Counties as the DNR lists each lake: Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, hydrography (lake, pond, reservoir and mine-pit lake classes), via the Metropolitan Council’s data mirror. Fetched 26 Oct 2026.

Swimming

People also search for the best swimming lakes in Minnesota. No public record ranks lakes for swimming, and this page does not. Minnesota publishes no statewide record of algal bloom reports, so no list here says a lake is free of blooms or safe to swim in. Clear water does not settle it either: a Secchi reading says how far you can see into a lake, not what bacteria or algae toxins are in it.

Our Minnesota lake pages carry the EPA satellite’s cyanobacteria reading where a lake is large enough for the satellite to see it, about 250 acres or more. Beach closures are posted by the local health department or the beach’s owner; this site does not carry them.

Satellite: U.S. EPA Cyanobacteria Assessment Network (CyAN), lakes of about 1 square kilometre or more. Algae records: our How we measure page, Minnesota section.

How the lists were made

Lakes are counted by the rule of our Minnesota lake count: the DNR map’s lake-or-pond, reservoir and mine-pit lake classes, one lake per DNR lake number, 10 acres or more, a border water by its Minnesota part. A lake mapped in basins takes every basin’s clarity readings and its latest standard survey, as its lake page does. The access record lists 2,993 public water access sites run by the DNR, counties, cities and federal agencies; a site is joined to the lake whose DNR number it carries. A lake with no site in that record can still have a way in, such as a resort or a city beach, but this page cannot show it from a public record, so the lake is left off.

Nothing here is a rating, a review or our opinion of a lake. The fuller rankings are in our guides to the clearest, deepest, largest and walleye lakes, and in How many lakes are in Minnesota? How we read every kind of figure is on How we measure.

Minnesota DNR LakeFinder, fetched 26 Oct 2026; Minnesota DNR public water accesses, via the Metropolitan Council’s data mirror, fetched 15 Oct 2026; Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, hydrography (lake, pond, reservoir and mine-pit lake classes), via the Metropolitan Council’s data mirror. Fetched 26 Oct 2026. Minnesota DNR data used under the DNR General Data and Software License. Not for navigation.