Fishing in the Paul Bunyan State Forest

Hello all! I’m new to this site, and this is my first post. Me and the family are going camping at Gulch Lake Campground which is in Paul Bunyan State Forest. The campground is by three lakes. Twenty one lake, Bass Lakes and Hanson lake. Does anyone have any fishing info on these lakes? I’ve looked up all the lakes on MN lake finder site. I love this site! It has fish surveys, depth maps and stocking reports, great info but I need some local advise. I’m not bringing the boat or canoe, so I’ll be shore fishing only. I’m going to manly fish 21 lake for bass, but I’m a multi-species fisherman. If its biting, I’ll catch it. Panfish, walleye, pike, trout it’s all good. Thanks in advance.

it maybe too late for a reply but its a very nice area, I have camped on Nelson lake. Fishing is nothing special in the handful of times i fished them. 21 has alot of stunted sunfish, and the pike you catch are small as well, clear deep lake, the lakes also get a fair share of fishing pressure for their size. there are a few decent bass, dont think i’ve caught anything over 18″ though in 21 or nelson, but they’re in there. I would say 21 gets the most, nelson second, and bass lake last, I’ve never fished on bass lake and have only seen a couple people out there, probably because the landing is hard to get anything bigger than a 12′ boat in there

Thanks for the information. It was a little late, but we all enjoyed the area. You are right about the stunted sunfish. My son is 7 he caught at least 100 of those little guys, and loved every minute. I think he will remember that for a long time. The wife even through in a line and caught a few. I was busy helping them fish so I didn’t get much fishing time in, but I really wanted them to enjoy it so we can fish as a family more often. May be able to talk her into a Lake of the Woods camping trip! The few hours I got in fishing where good. I got a good mixed bag of so small bass and a few perch. The biggest was 19, that made the trip for me:) Nelson Lake campground was very quite we where the only ones camping there. We will be back very nice area