Best walleye lakes in Minnesota

Lakes that out-net their class

We do not rank lakes by opinion. This list ranks Minnesota lakes by what the DNR’s own nets caught: walleye per gill net in each lake’s latest standard survey, read against the range the DNR calls normal for lakes like it. By that measure the lake that out-nets its class by the most is Barrett Lake in Grant County: 24 walleye per net in 2023, where 0.8 to 3.8 is normal, 6.4 times the top of the range. Next come Lake Marion (45 per net, 2019), Whitefish Lake (36 per net, 2025) and Red Lake (51 per net, 2025).

A lake is ranked when its latest standard survey is from 2017 or later and set at least four gill nets: 956 lakes pass. Each line below is one lake on its own scale; the bracket under it is the normal range for its class.

Walleye per gill net in the same lakes’ earlier standard surveys, oldest first:

Barrett Lake: 2005 8.0 · 2007 14 · 2011 27 · 2017 8.3 · 2023 24

Lake Marion: 2003 2.6 · 2007 9.6 · 2010 26 · 2015 6.1 · 2019 45

Whitefish Lake: 1992 59 · 2000 48 · 2010 35 · 2018 25 · 2025 36

Red Lake: 2021 38 · 2022 45 · 2023 49 · 2024 44 · 2025 51

White Earth Lake: 2002 25 · 2007 16 · 2012 23 · 2017 25 · 2023 32

Tulaby Lake: 2001 11 · 2006 20 · 2011 22 · 2016 25 · 2021 28

Minnesota DNR Fisheries standard lake surveys, via LakeFinder, fetched 26 Oct 2026. Normal range: DNR’s range for lakes of the same class (43 classes, grouped by water chemistry and shape). Each line has its own scale; lines are not compared with each other.

The top 25

The 25 lakes whose walleye catch stands furthest above the normal range for their class. “× top” is the catch divided by the top of the normal range. Under each name: the survey year, the gill nets set, and “stocked”, the number of years from 2016 to 2025 in which the DNR’s stocking reports list walleye for the lake, with the latest: 18 of the 25 were stocked in that time and 7 have no walleye stocking on record. 10 of the 25 have a lake page on this site, linked by name, with the full survey.

Minnesota DNR Fisheries standard lake surveys, via LakeFinder, fetched 26 Oct 2026. Normal range: DNR’s range for lakes of the same class (43 classes, grouped by water chemistry and shape). Stocking: Minnesota DNR LakeFinder stocking reports, 2016–2025, year only, fetched 26 Oct 2026.

The big lakes

Most searches for walleye lakes name the big ones. Here is every Minnesota lake of 10,000 acres or more with a standard survey, largest first, ranked or not. Four of the 15 netted more walleye than normal for their class in their latest survey: Lake of the Woods, Red Lake, Vermilion Lake and Basswood Lake. Otter Tail Lake (2004) has no standard survey from 2017 or later, so it is not in the ranking. The DNR’s record files most surveys of these lakes as large-lake surveys, a kind of standard survey.

Minnesota DNR Fisheries standard lake surveys, via LakeFinder, fetched 26 Oct 2026. Normal range: DNR’s range for lakes of the same class (43 classes, grouped by water chemistry and shape). Large-lake surveys are a kind of standard survey in DNR’s record. Border waters by their Minnesota part.

How the lakes compare

Of the 956 ranked lakes, 175 netted more walleye than normal for their class, 531 were within the normal range and 250 were below it. Their surveys run from 2017 to 2025; the middle one is from 2023.

Ranked by the raw catch instead, without the class range, the top lakes are Red Lake (51 per net, normal 3.3–14.8), Lake Marion (45 per net, normal 1–7.3), Traverse Lake (43 per net, normal 3.2–15.3), Whitefish Lake (36 per net, normal 2–9.7) and Lake Shetek (32 per net, normal 3.2–15.3). Lakes in richer classes net more walleye as a rule, which is why the main list reads each catch against its own class.

1,776 lakes caught walleye in their latest standard survey. 623 of those surveys are older than 2017, and 197 more set fewer than four gill nets; those lakes are not ranked.

Minnesota DNR Fisheries standard lake surveys, via LakeFinder, fetched 26 Oct 2026. Normal range: DNR’s range for lakes of the same class (43 classes, grouped by water chemistry and shape).

Other fish, same test

The same test works for other fish the DNR nets. The DNR sets gill nets mainly for walleye, northern pike and yellow perch, and trap nets mainly for bluegill and crappie, so each fish is read in its own net. The five lakes furthest above normal for each, by the same rules (2017 or later, four or more nets of that kind):

Northern pike, per gill net: Collinwood Lake 34 (4.7× top of normal, 2024) · Pelican Lake 15 (4.3× top of normal, 2022) · South Twin Lake 34 (3.8× top of normal, 2024) · East LaBelle Lake 35 (3.8× top of normal, 2025) · Silver Lake 20 (3.8× top of normal, 2023)

Yellow perch, per gill net: Long Lake 182 (8.1× top of normal, 2019) · Big Stone Lake 166 (7.4× top of normal, 2024) · Harriet Lake 18 (6.5× top of normal, 2022) · Sauk Lake 152 (6.3× top of normal, 2023) · Ash Lake 87 (6.1× top of normal, 2023)

Black crappie, per trap net: Lake Winona 118 (7.8× top of normal, 2021) · Moon Lake 25 (7.4× top of normal, 2023) · Long Lake 80 (6.5× top of normal, 2019) · Cedar Lake 67 (5.4× top of normal, 2021) · Lura Lake 34 (5.2× top of normal, 2023)

Bluegill, per trap net: High Lake 109 (18.1× top of normal, 2024) · Apple Lake 85 (10.9× top of normal, 2018) · Staring Lake 171 (8.5× top of normal, 2021) · Bass Lake 64 (8.1× top of normal, 2024) · School Section Lake 200 (8.0× top of normal, 2018)

Neither net is the DNR’s main tool for bass or muskellunge, so they are not ranked here.

Minnesota DNR Fisheries standard lake surveys, via LakeFinder, fetched 26 Oct 2026. Normal range: DNR’s range for lakes of the same class (43 classes, grouped by water chemistry and shape). Which net counts which fish: Minnesota DNR, Lake survey program (dnr.state.mn.us), read 26 Oct 2026.

How the test works

In a standard survey the DNR leaves each gill net in the water for 24 hours, counts what it holds and reports the average catch per net; how many gill nets it sets depends on the lake’s size. It groups Minnesota’s surveyed lakes into 43 classes by water chemistry and shape, and publishes for each class the range of catches it considers normal. A catch above that range means more walleye in the nets than in similar lakes, on the days the nets were set.

A net catch is not a promise of what an angler will catch, and it does not measure size: the lake pages here give the lengths and weights the DNR recorded. LakeFinder lists special fishing regulations for 3 of the 25 lakes in the top 25; check the DNR’s rules before you go. A survey is a reading of one year, so each lake’s year is shown.

The figures are the same ones our lake pages print in their fish survey section. How we read every kind of figure is on How we measure.

Minnesota DNR, Lake survey program definitions (dnr.state.mn.us), read 26 Oct 2026; surveys via LakeFinder, fetched 26 Oct 2026. Minnesota DNR data used under the DNR General Data and Software License. Not for navigation.