Big Lake (Stearns County)
Stearns County, Minnesota - DNR stocking history, depth and survey data
Minnesota · Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) · DOW 73015900
DNR records show 9 stocking entries at Big Lake (Stearns County) since 2017, most recently black crappie yearlings in 2025 (3,000 fish).
- Big Lake (Stearns County) has 9 DNR stocking records across 5 years (2017-2025): walleye (8), black crappie (1).
- The most-stocked species by count is walleye: 28,457 fish on record.
- Maximum depth 42 ft, mean depth 15 ft; surface area 458 acres, 227 littoral acres, 7.5 miles of shoreline, per the DNR lake survey.
- Average water clarity (Secchi depth) 6.5 ft.
- Fish species DNR lists here: black bullhead, black crappie, bluegill, bowfin (dogfish), brown bullhead, channel catfish, green sunfish, hybrid sunfish, largemouth bass, northern pike, pumpkinseed, smallmouth bass, and 4 more.
- 1 public access on the DNR list.
- Most recent DNR fish survey: (standard survey).
- Stearns County, nearest town Richmond; DNR lake number (DOW) 73015900.
Depth map
Bathymetric contours from the Minnesota DNR lake survey mapped 5/18/1971 (orig map); depths in feet. Simplified for the web; not for navigation.
Stocking history
| Year | Species | Size | Number | Pounds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Black Crappie1 | yearlings | 3,000 | 15.0 |
| 2025 | Walleye | fingerlings | 6,074 | 209.0 |
| 2025 | Walleye | yearlings | 13 | 17.0 |
| 2022 | Walleye | fingerlings | 12,070 | 435.0 |
| 2022 | Walleye | fingerlings | 2,784 | 96.0 |
| 2020 | Walleye1 | yearlings | 2,500 | 100.0 |
| 2019 | Walleye | fingerlings | 4,448 | 310.0 |
| 2017 | Walleye | adults | 516 | 321.3 |
| 2017 | Walleye | yearlings | 52 | 8.5 |
1 fish purchased and stocked by private citizens and sporting groups.
Field note · Minnesota stocks by year, not by truck day: walleye fry go in within weeks of ice-out, fingerlings and yearlings mostly in fall, and stream trout in spring and fall. A row here means the fish went in during that year; DNR adds the year's rows after the fact, so the current year can look empty until winter.
Public accesses
| Type | Owner | Where |
|---|---|---|
| concrete ramp | Minnesota DNR | South side of lake off of 228th Avenue north of Edgeton Rd. |
DNR fish survey, 2017
| Species | Gear | Catch per net | Total catch | Avg lb |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Largemouth bass | Standard electrofishing | 179.02 | 302 | 0.72 |
| Bluegill | Standard trap nets | 39.08 | 469 | 0.05 |
| Pumpkinseed | Standard trap nets | 2.42 | 29 | 0.20 |
| Hybrid sunfish | Standard trap nets | 2.33 | 28 | 0.23 |
| Yellow bullhead | Standard trap nets | 1.92 | 23 | 0.73 |
| Black crappie | Standard trap nets | 1.25 | 15 | 0.09 |
| Yellow perch | Standard trap nets | 0.92 | 11 | 0.14 |
| Bowfin (dogfish) | Standard trap nets | 0.67 | 8 | 4.08 |
| Largemouth bass | Standard trap nets | 0.58 | 7 | 0.24 |
| Yellow bullhead | Standard gill nets | 20.11 | 181 | 0.87 |
| Bluegill | Standard gill nets | 12.78 | 115 | 0.26 |
| Northern pike | Standard gill nets | 11.67 | 105 | 1.84 |
| Walleye | Standard gill nets | 9.00 | 81 | 2.06 |
| Black crappie | Standard gill nets | 6.78 | 61 | 0.45 |
| Largemouth bass | Standard gill nets | 5.56 | 50 | 0.70 |
| Pumpkinseed | Standard gill nets | 3.11 | 28 | 0.34 |
| White sucker | Standard gill nets | 1.00 | 9 | 3.09 |
Catch per net (CPUE) is the DNR survey's count per gill net or trap net set; higher means more of that species were sampled, not a fishing forecast. Top species per gear shown; where we have no verified common name for a DNR code, the code itself is shown.
Big Lake is a 458 acre lake located three miles southwest of the City of Richmond. It has a maximum depth of 42 feet with an average depth of 15 feet. Big Lake has good water quality and excellent water clarity with a 10 year average summer Secchi reading of 10 feet. The Big Lake watershed is 20,371 acres with land use consisting of 65% agriculture, 17% pasture, 6% marsh/open water, 5% forest, 4% residential, and 3% grassland. Walleye fingerlings are stocked every other year. There is one public access and two private accesses (Joe's Last Resort and Twilight Acres Resort) located on the lake. A standard survey was conducted in 2017 to monitor changes in the fishery from the last survey completed in 2012. Big Lake has a diverse aquatic plant community. While no submerged plant survey was conducted in 2017, the last submerged plant survey conducted in 2012 found 13 species of aquatic plants growing to a depth of 9.5 feet. Muskgrass and sago pondweed were the most common. Emergent plants were mapped in 2017 and found to cover approximately 15% of the lake. Species found were bulrush spp. (2 acres), cattail spp. (36 acres), white waterlily (29 acres), and yellow water lily (2 acres). Historically, Northern Pike have not been abundant in Big Lake, however, since 1994 their abundance has steadily increased. The catch in 2017 was higher than 2012 and above the range of expected values for lakes with similar characteristics, and the highest on record. Northern Pike ranged in length from 15 to 34 inches with an average length and weight of 20 inches and about two pounds. Ten percent of the Northern Pike were longer than 24 inches and 3% were longer than 30 inches. Walleye fingerling stocking has been the stocking strategy for the past 50 years, although fry stocking was experimented with between 2003 and 2006. Due to poor survival, fry stocking was discontinued and management returned to biennial fingerling stocking in 2007. The catch in 2017 was the highest on record and above the range of expected values for the lake class. Walleye ranged in length from 10 to 25 inches with an average length and weight of 18 inches and two pounds. Seven year classes were present in the age sample with the 2014 year class making up 47% of the sample. Growth was fast with both males and females reaching 16 inches by age three. Yellow Perch abundance remains low, similar to past surveys. Only 15 Yellow Perch were sampled during the survey and ranged from five to 8.5 inches in length. Largemouth Bass were sampled during daytime electrofishing on May 11, 2017. A total of 302…
Minnesota DNR survey narrative, .
All Minnesota stockings · every Minnesota lake with a page · state CSV · this lake on DNR LakeFinder
Stocking rows, depths, accesses and survey figures are Minnesota DNR LakeFinder data as of 2026-09-02; contours are the DNR bathymetric survey. Regulations, slot limits and special rules are on the DNR page linked above, not here.
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