Walleye lakes besides the big 4

Does anyone know about decent walleye lakes without having to drive 3 hours north?

The reason people drive north for Walleye is not because they aren’t in metro lakes, but it’s much easier to catch them on the Walleye factories like Upper Red and Mille Lacs.
Minnetonka, White Bear, Bald Eagle and several other local lakes hold good populations of them, but due to higher pressure and much more varied structure in these lakes, the Wallys are a lot more work to catch.
Do the research, put in the work, and most importantly, put in the time, and you will be able to catch them.
You might find that going north to catch them is preferable in the end, but the hunt is also fun.

Which “big 4”? Are we to assume your in MN? Didn’t see a location in your post or in your profile.
Regardless of being in reservoirs in Colorado or small lakes in New York, there are always good lakes around. They may not have the same population density, but still good places. They just usually take more effort to get them dialed in

Here is YouTube video from a year ago, of a couple guys winter fishing for Walleyes (open water).

In pool 2 (under Ford Dam, in St. Paul). It’s a hike, but they appear to be having reasonable success.

I found it interesting since I grew up not far from the spot in the video.

With the warm weather this week it might be worth a shot.

I live in the Brainerd Lakes area. I have a method I use to to select lakes by.

When I have so many lakes to choose from, how do I decide where to fish. I have a come up with a measurement that is a gauge for a lake I have never fished.

It is based on the MN DNR data. It is “Acres / Walleye” You take the Total Lake Acres from the DNR Survey and divide it by the Total Number of Walleyes reported.

Mille Lacs has a A/W number of 113, Minnetonka has a A/W number of 183.

I have found small lakes in my area with a A/W number as low as 7 and large lakes as high as 196. I have fished both of those lakes over the years. The one with 7 I didn’t catch any walleyes the but I had a fun afternoon pulling medium sized Northerns through the ice.

Fishing an unknown body of water, either through the ice or open water is always a challenge, but that is half the fun

Just to clarify, in the formula A/W the lower the number,the more walleye present. For example. If you had a 300 acre lake with 100 walleye surveyed, you would have 300/100= 3 acres per walleye. Going in reverse you could do 100/300= which would tell you that you have 0.33 walleye per acre of lake.

Correct the number is Acres divided Walleyes. Lower number means more Walleyes.

Somewhere, I heard or read that you need 2 to 3 acres of lake to support one full size Walleye (18-24″).

I believe, I got that number from the DNR.

The small lake I live on is stocked with Walleyes(Lake Association Pays and I support them). The lake is stocked with about 200 fingerlings every other year at a cost of about $1000.

I casually fish the lake I live on when we have company. I have yet to catch one of those $5 walleyes. The DNR survey for my lake doesn’t even list Walleyes.

Here is an example of some of the lakes near me.

Crosslake 43
Rush 54
Pelican 113
Whitefish 116
Little Pine 129
Big Trout 136

My fishing boat sits on a trailer ready to go at moments notice. Being retired is great. Fish on!!!

coletonp15 wrote:

Does anyone know about decent walleye lakes without having to drive 3 hours north?

There are walleye in nearly every decent sized lake in MN, so depending on where you are coming from there are likely some walleye lakes in your backyard. As pointed out above, the likelihood of getting into limits ever, let alone on a regular basis is highly unlikely in the Metro. Thankfully there are a few thousand options a short drive away. And some of the outstate areas like Alex, DL, Park Rapids, Walker, Brainerd, Grand Rapids etc have nearly unlimited options. Spend some time on DNR Lakefinder in the area you want to go, and you should be well on your way!