Glen Schmitt

More than 30 years ago, the DNR tried to establish a lake trout population in Cook County’s Hungry Jack Lake. While there appeared to be enough deep, cool water and lake trout-type habitat to support a laker population, the effort was unsuccessful.
Lake trout were last stocked in Hungry Jack in 2004, and not a single fish has shown up in DNR surveys since. But Hungry Jack is managed effectively for walleyes and smallmouth bass, both of which provide excellent fish-catching opportunities.

The Detroit Lakes area features an abundance of exceptional bluegill and crappie fisheries. It’s one of the state’s destination locations for panfish, and Floyd Lake – known by most Becker County anglers as Big Floyd – is one of the area’s best.

Located just southeast of Aitkin, Elm Island Lake is one of several fisheries in the Ripple River chain known primarily for producing panfish and northern pike. At just more than 500 acres and with an abundance of vegetation above and below the surface, Elm Island’s habitat suits those fish species.

Chisago County’s Goose Lake consists of two basins that total a bit more than 750 acres. The basins are connected by a narrow but navigable channel that runs under a county road bridge.
The north end, where the public access is located, is basically bowl-shaped and shallow. The south basin features more structure and it’s deeper, so this is where you’ll want to concentrate most of your fishing efforts, especially during the open-water season.

On paper, Sturgeon Lake looks like it has all the makings of a fine walleye fishery. It’s a large body of water with plenty of depth, there’s a lot of structure, and it’s part of a chain and thus has an inlet and an outlet.
But this St. Louis County system has some limiting factors.

Big Spunk Lake, or Upper Spunk, as it’s locally known, is part of a three-lake system connected by small creeks. The chain also includes Lower Spunk and Middle Spunk to the north.
At 440 acres, Big Spunk is the largest of these three lakes located in the quiet town of Avon. Generally, not much has changed over the years on Big Spunk; it continues to be a typical Stearns County bass/panfish-type of lake.

When the DNR last surveyed Martin County’s Hall Lake in 2022, workers sampled 16 different species of fish. So, to say this 548-acre lake located within the city limits of Fairmont might have a little bit of everything in it certainly isn’t an understatement.

Once known as one of the better walleye lakes in this central-Minnesota area, Jennie’s largemouth bass and northern pike are more abundant now and seem to be drawing a lot more attention from anglers.

If you’re an angler in Itasca County, odds are pretty good you’ve spent time on Island Lake near Northome. This 3,100-acre fishery is popular among local folks for its walleye production, and, year-round, it usually doesn’t disappoint.