Cedar Lake (Wright County)

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

Minnesota · Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) · DOW 86007300

Cedar Lake (Wright County) has no DNR stocking rows in LakeFinder; this page carries its DNR depth, access and survey data.

• Cedar Lake (Wright County) shows no stocking records in Minnesota DNR LakeFinder as of September 2, 2026.
• Maximum depth 47 ft, mean depth 8 ft; surface area 206 acres, 131 littoral acres, 4.6 miles of shoreline, per the DNR lake survey.
• Average water clarity (Secchi depth) 15.8 ft.
• Fish species DNR lists here: black bullhead, black crappie, bluegill, bowfin (dogfish), brown bullhead, green sunfish, hybrid sunfish, largemouth bass, northern pike, pumpkinseed, yellow bullhead.
• 2 public accesses on the DNR list.
• Most recent DNR fish survey: June 29, 2020 (standard survey).
• Wright County, nearest town Monticello; DNR lake number (DOW) 86007300.

Depth map

Bathymetric contours from the Minnesota DNR lake survey (get source); depths in feet. Simplified for the web; not for navigation.

Public accesses

DNR fish survey, 2020

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.

Cedar Lake is a small, mostly shallow basin located three miles southwest of Monticello in northern Wright County. The only access on this lake is user-developed and located off of Aetna Avenue NE. Most development has occurred on the east side of the lake. Due to its shallowness and good water clarity, the aquatic plant community is very diverse. No stocking has been done and management has been limited to periodic netting. The last survey was in 2007. The basin on the west side of Aetna Avenue, referred to as Little Cedar, was also included as part of this survey. Emergent and floating-leaf vegetation is widespread and consisted primarily of cattail and waterlilies. Submerged vegetation was not surveyed in 2020 but was abundant consisting mostly of coontail and flatstem pondweed. Water clarity is good with summer Secchi readings averaging 16.0 feet and dissolved oxygen levels adequate to support fish down to 20 feet. Few changes in the fisheries are apparent between the 2007 and 2020 surveys. Northern Pike are still abundant while Bluegill appear less abundant but still small. Northern Pike are on the high end of the normal range but the average size Northern Pike was two and a half pounds. Forage species such as Golden Shiners and Yellow Perch were not abundant. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, spring electrofishing targeting Largemouth Bass was not conducted in 2020. Previous night electrofishing for bass in 2007 yielded average catch rates in Cedar Lake when compared to other lakes in the Sauk Rapids management area. Cedar Lake has a moderately abundant Bluegill population, however few quality size fish can be found in the Lake. Only four Bluegill larger than seven inches were captured with trap nets and the average size was about five inches. Cedar Lake also has a low population of Black Crappie and most sampled in the survey were small; lengths ranged from three to eleven inches with an average length of 7.5 inches. Other species in the fish community include Black, Brown, and Yellow Bullhead, Bowfin, Green Sunfish, Golden Shiner, Hybrid and Pumpkinseed Sunfish.

Minnesota DNR survey narrative, June 29, 2020.

All Minnesota stockings · every Minnesota lake with a page · state CSV · this lake on DNR LakeFinder