Carrot Lake

Cook County, Minnesota - DNR stocking history, depth and survey data

Minnesota · Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) · DOW 16007100

DNR records show 8 stocking entries at Carrot Lake since 2016, most recently brook trout fingerlings in 2025 (2,500 fish).

Carrot Lake has 8 DNR stocking records across 8 years (2016-2025): brook trout (7), rainbow trout (1).
The most-stocked species by count is brook trout: 19,009 fish on record.
Maximum depth 17 ft, mean depth 10 ft; surface area 30 acres, 21 littoral acres, 1.1 miles of shoreline, per the DNR lake survey.
Average water clarity (Secchi depth) 10.4 ft.
1 public access on the DNR list.
Most recent DNR fish survey: October 5, 2015 (standard survey).
Cook County, nearest town Grand Marais; DNR lake number (DOW) 16007100.

Stocking history

Year	Species	Size	Number	Pounds
2025	Brook Trout	fingerlings	2,500	99.8
2024	Brook Trout	fingerlings	2,500	53.6
2023	Brook Trout	fingerlings	2,500	59.7
2021	Brook Trout	fingerlings	2,500	76.7
2020	Brook Trout	fingerlings	2,500	109.5
2019	Brook Trout⁸	fingerlings	4,009	118.7
2017	Brook Trout⁸	fingerlings	2,500	43.9
2016	Rainbow Trout	fingerlings	3,214	110.8

⁸ fish cooperatively purchased, raised, and/or stocked by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

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
CA	USF	- USFS carry-in access on north shore; off F.R. 313. Parking available for four vehicles.

DNR fish survey, 2015

Species	Gear	Catch per net	Total catch	Avg lb
Brook trout	Standard gill nets	20.00	40	0.65

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.

Brook trout were abundant in Carrot Lake in the fall of 2015, with large numbers of eight-to-ten-inch fish and fair numbers of fish larger than 12 inches present. Survival of recent stockings had been good, and trout as old as four years were taken. Growth of young trout had been about average for this area, with fish reaching a mean length of 9.2 inches by the end of their second year. Growth of older fish appeared to have been slower. No fish species other than brook trout were found in Carrot Lake in 2015. The lake is not known to support significant numbers of any undesirable species, although white sucker in very low numbers have been taken in some past surveys.

Minnesota DNR survey narrative, October 5, 2015.

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. Regulations, slot limits and special rules are on the DNR page linked above, not here.

Carrot Lake

Stocking history

Public accesses

DNR fish survey, 2015

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