Minnesota's northern tier of lakes tends to receive the most attention as "walleye factories," but plenty of opportunities exist in southern and central waters. Photo by Ron Sinfelt.

Each year in Minnesota, there are approximately 30 million pounds of walleyes caught by anglers for consumption. That sounds like a lot, but it is only 10 pounds per acre of fishable water. On top of that, there are well over a million fishing licenses sold in the state each year. So, that's only about 30 pounds of walleyes per angler per year. It doesn't sound like so much when you break it down.

To keep this circle connected, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources stocks well over 250 million walleyes per year in thousands of lakes. When you consider that only about a third of the licensed anglers are specifically fishing for walleyes, it becomes clear that the anglers pursuing walleyes actually do have a wealth of outstanding fisheries in the state. Odds are good someone chasing walleyes on a decent walleye lake has the potential to do quite well.

'DECENT' DEFINED
So what defines a decent walleye lake? In Minnesota, that is a good question. In the southern portion of the state, dozens of lakes have featureless bottoms and a shallow water column. Sporting little vegetation because of the lack of decent water visibility, these lakes are often referred to as prairie pothole lakes and if it wasn't for the aeration systems that were installed into these lakes by local lake associations, all that would live there would be carp, bullheads and fathead minnows. Both stocking by the MDNR and natural reproduction -- yes, walleyes in those potholes reproduce -- ensures there are loads of walleyes for anglers in this prairie pothole region of the state.

In the central band that cuts east to west, the lakes are deeper, have better visibility and lots of vegetation. These lakes are more prone to producing big bass and pike, but stocking will maintain a decent walleye population. Since walleyes will hit just about anything a bass or pike will, anglers fishing the weedy cover will often discover a walleye or two on the end of their line. It can take a while for anglers to figure out where the walleyes are on the central lakes, but once those walleye sanctuaries are found, those hotspots stay hot for many years.

In the northern portion of the state, you have your walleye factories, like Leech Lake, Winnibigoshish, Cass, Lake of the Woods. These are textbook walleye lakes with big pieces of mid-lake structure and so much natural recruitment the MDNR gets many of their eggs for stocking from them.

As well as the big water, the northern section of the state has loads of deep, clear, rock- and sand-bottomed lakes that are considered the perfect places to find and catch walleyes. Lakes like Bemidji, Ten Mile, Detroit Lake, Bowstring and Vermilion are just a few of the premier northern lakes where walleyes are found in numbers that give anglers a good chance, in surroundings that make fishermen feel like they are in walleye heaven.