Mille Lacs Lake, Minnesota's second-largest lake, spans 132,000 surface acres or slightly more than 200 square miles. Maximum depths barely exceed 40 feet, while much of the main lake falls into the 20 to 38 foot depth ranges. While the north half of Mille Lacs contains most of the lake's mud flats, the southern portion of the lake offers more gravel and rock bars. All sides of the lake offer some shallow reef-top fishing. Deep-water angling takes place on the southern deep gravel and rocks as well as on dozens of mud flats in the north half of the lake. Shoreline break fishing on varied bottom types occurs all around the lake. The weed line is at 9 to 10 feet.
Mille Lacs Lake offers the angler acres of multi-species action in a genuine "big lake" setting. Walleye, Northern Pike, Muskie, Jumbo Perch, Small Mouth Bass and Tullibee share the limelight at Minnesota's most popular fishing lake - on open water and on ice.
Prime Spawning Grounds - Mille Lacs' fame as one of the world's most prolific "natural" walleye lakes rests on its ability to produce billions of walleye eggs and fry.
No Thermo cline - In the absence of a thermo cline and "layering", walleyes and other fish species comfortable use the entire well oxygenated lake.
Rich Forage Base - A main reason for the health of the Mille Lacs fishery is an abundant supply of forage.
Lake Vermilion derived its name from the translation of "Onamuni", the Ojibwe name meaning "Lake of the Sunset Glow"- which the French translated to "Vermilion", a Latin word for a color ranging from yellow to red.
In the 1940’s the National Geographic Society declared Lake Vermilion one of the top ten most scenic lakes in the United States. And it still is today. With its 40,000 acres of water, 365 islands and 1,200 miles of shoreline, it stretches 40 miles across the heart of Minnesota’s Arrowhead Region.
Lake Vermilion is located north of the Laurentian Divide. Water from Lake Vermilion flows NORTH into Hudson Bay. There are several rivers and creeks feeding Lake Vermilion, but the only outflow is the Vermilion River. The deepest spot in the lake is 76'.
Lake Vermilion usually begins to freeze by mid-November. Ice out has occured as early as April 10 in 1945 and as late as May 23 in 1950 (although the next latest date was May 15 in 1966).
Lake Minnetonka is the 10th largest lake in Minnesota; it has over 14,000 acres of water (approximately 22 square miles) with more than 100 miles of shoreline. Lake Minnetonka is also the most heavily-used lakes in Minnesota.
Despite the metro location, Lake Minnetonka is rated one of the finest, most consistent fish producing lakes in the state. Some of the species in the lake include Bluegills (the most abundant species), crappie, largemouth bass, muskellunge (muskie) northern pike, smallmouth bass, walleye.
White Bear Lake
2,416-acre White Bear Lake. Inch for inch, they carry more pounds than muskies in most lakes."
Clearwater lakes like White Bear are notorious for nurturing thick muskies. They hold larger and greasier forage, like ciscoes and lake suckers. White Bear muskies also eat a share of bullheads.
Since 1990, the Department of Natural Resources has been juicing White Bear with both pure-strain and hybrid (tiger) muskies. Interestingly, though, net samplings reveal few fish and relatively small ones, too. But that statistical data doesn't faze muskie purists. They know better. The truth is in the catch. Likely, White Bear's clear and deep composition is what keeps muskies free of the meshing and subsequent tabulation.
