Benjamin Lake and Carls Lake

Near Camp Rabideau are found Lake Benjamin and Carls Lake.  They are 120 feet and 110 feet respectively. That is deep for Minnesota Lakes.  The only one that is in the areas that is deeper is Lake Lasalle which is over 240 feet deep. It is the second deepest lake in Minnesota. Benjamin Lake is in lake class 20 and is managed as a stream trout lake. Class 20 lakes are typically small, deep, soft water lakes with regular shorelines. Fish communities can range from trout to panfish depending on management goals, and some may experience partial winter-kills. Rainbow trout fingerlings are stocked annually at about 150 per acre. Stocking is usually during mid October. The 1996 assessment found rainbow trout at 15.0 per gill net with a mean length of 10.2 inches and a mean weight of 0.45 pounds. The only previous assessment using gill nets since the introduction of trout was in 1984 when they were sampled at 27.0 gill net and had a mean weight of 0.6 pounds. Eighty percent of the trout sampled in 1996 were from the 1995 stock and averaged 9.4 inches with the remainder from the 1994 stock averaging 13.1 inches.. Area fishing reports suggest a few larger trout are in the lake.  Since there is no access to Carls Lake except through the National Forrest it is harder to fish.  It has been a hot ice fishing lake.  The boys and I went fishing there on Monday. Tal is the only one that caught fish.  He caught the biggest perch I have seen. I found that since I am over 65 I did not need the usual trout stamp.  We had a picnic for lunch and then was invited to stop at my friends house for refreshments.

Could have been a record

what a great picture.  Look at the three of us in the reflection



All I caught