Best Pike Lakes in MN

[Jason King]

I fished Rainy Lake every year while growing up and am planning a trip to Minneapolis. Should I travel back to Rainy for good Pike fishing in the summer or are there better lakes closer to Minneapolis?

[merkman]

You might want to think about trying some rivers instead of lakes too?

[brmuskie]

Are you looking for trophy pike, over 40 inches, or are you looking to catch a bunch of smaller pike. If you want a bunch of smaller pike you don't need to travel to Rainy. If you want trophy pike you probably need to head north.

[waterbound]

The best lakes for big pike are up north and either very large or remote (or both) generally. Lakes like Rainy, LOTW, Kabetogama, Red, Mille Lacs and even Minnetonka hold some pretty nice sized fish. Deep in the BWCA you can find some lakes that are hardly fished at all and it's not uncommon to find some big girls in them. Regulation lakes are also good lakes for size: Lake Ann, a small metro area lake has a protected slot of 24-36" and has been known to produce pike over 40". Ultimately it comes to down if you want to spend the time traveling to a lake like the BWCA ones, exploring it like the huge ones, or trying to find the smaller numbers in a metro lake.

[JBMasterAngler]

Whitefish lake just north of brainerd is full of pike. Not too many big ones, but if your looking for action you'll catch more than you can count.

St. Croix River has a pretty good population of pike, with a few big ones possible. However, you'll probably catch more of other species than you will of pike, which is fine by me

[roughfish29]

you would be surpeised at how many big pike live in small streams

[Traxxx]

I'd go to Red and look up Jonny P, he'll put ya on em.

[Jason King]

What is BWCA?

[Huntin&Fishin]

What is BWCA?

Bondery Water Canoe Area in North Eastern MN

[C. Ford]

If you want to come way north come on up to Lake of the Woods. Awsome pike fishing very very probable for 40" plus and as long as your up You'll be on some great Musky also. Have fun

[gregg52]

JB

when you say the whitefish is full of them exactly how big are talking ??

[JBMasterAngler]

25 inches and under. There's destined to be a few big ones in there, but I haven't found them yet.

[mikefishing]

JB is right about whitefish. I was up there for a weekend with a buddy and caught all the pike we wanted. We did get one that was 32 inches but everything else was around 20.

[JBMasterAngler]

DNR should net hammer handles out of that lake to stock in winter kill lakes...might help the rest of the pike a tid bit to grow bigger.

[CRFan1]

I have been going to Whitefish the first week of june for the last 21 years and there are definitely a lot of pike. I have caught two in the 33" class (10 pounds maybe) but most are about 2 pounds. They are great to eat in my opinion so I keep some of them. Just troll any of the flats with a floating fire tiger rapala or on the weed edges later in the year I would guess.

[JBMasterAngler]

The small ones are still fun to catch. And yes, I strongly encourage everyone to keep your limit of 20 to 25 inchers out of the whitefish chain...in the long run it'll benefit every fish in the lake

[Gordie]

so many lakes so little time there are some really good ike lakes out there and the big six are not included in my listI hate to give away super lakes but hers acouple that I think are great and weather there the best well I think that anyway. grindstone awsome lake,pelican in wright county

[solbes]

I personally like to check out which lakes have the special pike regulations. For catch and release pike fishing, it's a lot of fun to head to one with a 40" minimum. Haven't yet gotten to release that 40+, but have been close.

[Gordie]

in that case I would have to say Red as the leader the LOW

[fishuhalik]

Minnetonka does have some monster pike with the occasional accident muskie. It is pretty intimidating cuz there's so much water, but all ya need to do is find a weed flat at about 12-16fow and set yer sucker/shiner a couple of feet above the weedline. Other than that there isn't much for good pike lakes around the metro, especially compared to the lakes up nort'. Big Marine has some big ones, but they're few and far between, I'd say maybe 1-20 is over 30". Going south I've heard there's some big gals in some of the sloughs in the 'sippi, but I've never tried it. I've also heard of some big ones coming out of the Croix, but I haven't found any while fishing smallies, and I throw alot of spinnerbaits and cranks out there.

[guideman]

I don't fish the metro anymore however, when I lived in MPLS we used to get some monster Pike out of the Mississippi. Just below the Ford dam and in some of the creek mouths south of there. There are also some decent Pike in the St Croix and some other rivers near the Twin cities.

For the consistent "Big fish" action, you'll have to go "up north" and fish.

Here are some of the lakes that produce consistent 40"+ Pike.

In no particular order.

Upper Red.

Leech.

Vermilion.

LOTW.

Winne.

Big Detroit.

Rainy.

"Ace"

[Shawn Kellett]

Vermilion has the biggest pike I've ever seen in it. I had one that slashed at a muskie bait at the boat that would have been an honest 48". It's possible it was a tiger, but I doubt it.

The biggest pike I've ever caught was out of Mille Lac at 44"

[Jeff13]

I have caught some nice pike muskie fishing on Mille Lacs. Fishing a tournament a few years ago we were interrupted by 6 pike over 40 inches in two days. Was fun but a heart breaker during a tournament!

[goblueM]

what about basswood? heard about some monsters up there

[SJMyers32]

I think the Big Detroit pike have been digested by other esox species! But in the same area Lakes Sallie and Melissa have 24-36 inch slots. To catch a handful of nice pike in an afternoon is very common, havent seen a 40 personally, but many that would give it a run for the money.