About Minnesota Lake Explorer

Minnesota Lake Explorer is a free interactive map for discovering Minnesota lakes. The Land of 10,000 Lakes actually has more than 11,800 of them — and this tool helps you find the right one, whether you're planning a fishing trip, looking for a public boat launch, or just exploring lakes near you.

Find Minnesota fishing lakes by species

Filter lakes by the fish you want to catch: walleye, northern pike, largemouth and smallmouth bass, muskellunge (muskie), crappie, bluegill and other panfish, lake trout, and more. Abundance classifications come from Minnesota DNR fish surveys, so you can compare lakes by how strong each species population actually measured — not just whether it's present.

Locate public boat launches

Switch to boat-launch mode to search public water access sites across the state, including ramp and access details where the Minnesota DNR publishes them. Useful for trailering a boat, launching a kayak, or finding shore access near the Twin Cities, Brainerd Lakes Area, Boundary Waters region, or anywhere else in Minnesota.

Where the data comes from

Lake and fisheries data is sourced from the Minnesota DNR LakeFinder datasets, including fish abundance classifications, survey dates, and published water access information. Survey coverage varies by county, so some lakes have richer data than others.

Free to use

No account, no fees — just open the Minnesota lake map and start exploring. The project adapts an earlier Wisconsin lake explorer to Minnesota's LakeFinder data.