Bloody Lake
Murray County, Minnesota - DNR stocking history, depth and survey data
Minnesota · Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) · DOW 51004000
DNR records show 1 stocking entry at Bloody Lake since 2023, most recently walleye fry in 2023 (248,000 fish).
- Bloody Lake has 1 DNR stocking record across 1 year (2023-2023): walleye (1).
- The most-stocked species by count is walleye: 248,000 fish on record.
- Maximum depth 9 ft; surface area 274 acres, 274 littoral acres, 5.6 miles of shoreline, per the DNR lake survey.
- Average water clarity (Secchi depth) 0.8 ft.
- Fish species DNR lists here: bigmouth buffalo, black bullhead, black crappie, bluegill, channel catfish, common carp, green sunfish, northern pike, orangespotted sunfish, quillback, walleye, white crappie, and 3 more.
- 1 public access on the DNR list.
- Most recent DNR fish survey: (targeted survey).
- Murray County, nearest town Currie; DNR lake number (DOW) 51004000.
Depth map
Bathymetric contours from the Minnesota DNR lake survey (get source); depths in feet. Simplified for the web; not for navigation.
Stocking history
| Year | Species | Size | Number | Pounds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Walleye | fry | 248,000 | 1.9 |
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 | - STATE OWNED ACCESS ON NORTHEAST SIDE OF LAKE |
DNR fish survey, 2023
| Species | Gear | Catch per net | Total catch | Avg lb |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black crappie | Standard trap nets | 11.00 | 33 | 0.07 |
| Black bullhead | Standard trap nets | 9.00 | 27 | 0.11 |
| Walleye | Standard trap nets | 7.00 | 21 | 0.03 |
| Bigmouth buffalo | Standard trap nets | 6.67 | 20 | 3.51 |
| Northern pike | Standard trap nets | 6.33 | 19 | 0.20 |
| Yellow perch | Standard trap nets | 5.67 | 17 | 0.14 |
| QBS | Standard trap nets | 3.67 | 11 | 2.71 |
| Common carp | Standard trap nets | 2.00 | 6 | 2.17 |
| Yellow perch | Standard gill nets | 9.00 | 9 | 0.09 |
| Black crappie | Standard gill nets | 6.00 | 6 | 0.00 |
| Black bullhead | Standard gill nets | 5.00 | 5 | 1.02 |
| Northern pike | Standard gill nets | 2.00 | 2 | 0.20 |
| Walleye | Standard gill nets | 2.00 | 2 | 0.09 |
| Bigmouth buffalo | Standard gill nets | 2.00 | 2 | 7.69 |
| Common carp | Standard gill nets | 1.00 | 1 | 0.22 |
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.
Bloody Lake is a shallow basin (maximum depth of 9 feet) that is 248 acres and is located in Murray County. Bloody Lake is connected to Lake Shetek by a channel large enough for watercraft to pass through, thus its fishery is influenced heavily by management activities and the existing fish community on Lake Shetek. Bloody Lake is managed primarily for Walleye, and secondarily for Yellow Perch, Black Crappie, and Northern Pike. Bloody Lake experienced a major fish kill during the winter of 2022-2023. Prior to the fish kill, stocking had not occurred since 2010 with fish maintained successfully via migration from Lake Shetek. After the winterkill, Bloody Lake was restocked with 248,000 Lower Mississippi Strain (LMS) Walleye fry from the Lake Sarah egg take operation. Lake Shetek was restocked with 1.7 million LMS Walleye fry as well. Black Crappie were reared in ponds at Lake Shetek State Park with age-0 fish produced in the ponds drained into Lake Shetek. Yellow Perch were not restocked because they were observed in good numbers (5.5 per gill net) during a netting survey in May. Two Northern Pike were also caught in nets during the Lake Shetek survey and a private rearing pond connected to Bloody Lake (Malone's Pond) was stocked and operated to boost the population in Bloody and Shetek Lakes. Bloody Lake was surveyed using one gill net and three trap nets the week of August 10, 2023 to determine the recovery of Bloody Lake after the winterkill and restocking efforts. Eleven species of fish were captured during sampling (see GN and TN results). Four species (Bluegill, Channel Catfish, Green Sunfish, and Orangespotted Sunfish) were not sampled in 2023 but were present before the winterkill event in 2022-2023. One species, White Sucker, was captured in 2023 but not prior to the winterkill. When looking at the management species, Walleye (2 per GN, 7 per TN), Black Crappie (6 per GN, 11 per TN), Northern Pike (2 per GN, 6.33 per TN), and Yellow Perch (9 per GN, 5.67 per TN) all showed large reductions in adult fish present. In fact, only age-0 Walleye, age-0 Black Crappie, and age-0 Northern Pike were sampled with no adult members of each of those species. Similar to Lake Shetek winterkill, Yellow Perch adults seemed to fair best of all management species. Encouragingly, Walleye, Black Crappie, and Northern Pike restocking and/or natural recruitment seem adequate to quickly repopulate the lake. Harvest oriented angling will be tough with many small fish caught over the next year or two, however, when these fish reach harvestable size the angling success…
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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