Lake Benton

Anybody have any recent reports from lake benton. Have not fished it for a long time. I know at one time it was pretty much just a bullhead lake, but back in the 80s and 90s there were walleye and pike, good ones too! I have heard they did some work to the lake and the perch fishing has gotten good. I am thinking of taking a trip in late May or early June up there. If there is a reasonable chance of catching a few walleye and some panfish. New work schedule has me looking at some closer spots for quick weekend trips.

I have never fished that lake, but I thought I would share this MN DNR utility in case you didnt know it existed. Looks like good populations and sizes for both walleye and perch.
https://maps1.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefinder/mobile/#content/41004300/survey

I did not know of that site… but I do now… looks like my evening is shot. I have plans to look at all kinds of lakes now. Thank you Captain!!!

jbg1219 wrote:

I did not know of that site… but I do now… looks like my evening is shot. I have plans to look at all kinds of lakes now. Thank you Captain!!!

You are welcome! It allows you to search by name OR by map so if you are going to be working somewhere just zoom in on that part of the state and search away. Not all lakes have survey data and they don’t get surveyed every year, but its nice to know. Since Benton is so shallow, it may have been prone to freezeout and if that were the case the DNR would do a survey immediately following and report that in the text below the survey numbers. Its really quite nice! Doesnt mean you will catch fish, but helps the searching for sure! Good luck!

Pheasant hunted that area last fall and talked to some guys that said they caught some walleye and perch out there. Nothing huge but they are there.

There was a thread here on this site regarding Benton a year or two ago.
The information on that thread is still relevant today. If it was a border water I suspect we’d be hearing of a great shallow bite right now; that lake fishes really similar to a lot of eastern SD shallow lakes. Some quality walleye and perch in there and they can be aggressive. It’s the type of lake I’d definitely target for MN opener.

jbg1219 wrote:

Anybody have any recent reports from lake benton. Have not fished it for a long time. I know at one time it was pretty much just a bullhead lake, but back in the 80s and 90s there were walleye and pike, good ones too! I have heard they did some work to the lake and the perch fishing has gotten good. I am thinking of taking a trip in late May or early June up there. If there is a reasonable chance of catching a few <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleye and some panfish. New work schedule has me looking at some closer spots for quick weekend trips.

I live ten or so miles from Benton- the fishing has gotten better especially in the spring for perch and walleye. They stuck a lot of time and money into cleaning up the water and weeds. also put some knew boat landings in. I would check in with the lake Benton resort for up to date bite info.