Cowdry Lake
Douglas County, Minnesota - DNR stocking history, depth and survey data
Minnesota · Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) · DOW 21010300
DNR records show 10 stocking entries at Cowdry Lake since 2018, most recently walleye fingerlings in 2025 (1,125 fish).
- Cowdry Lake has 10 DNR stocking records across 7 years (2018-2025): walleye (10).
- The most-stocked species by count is walleye: 10,199 fish on record.
- Maximum depth 52 ft, mean depth 25 ft; surface area 243 acres, 86 littoral acres, 3.0 miles of shoreline, per the DNR lake survey.
- Average water clarity (Secchi depth) 14.6 ft.
- Fish species DNR lists here: black bullhead, black crappie, bluegill, bowfin (dogfish), brown bullhead, common carp, green sunfish, hybrid sunfish, largemouth bass, northern pike, pumpkinseed, rock bass, and 7 more.
- 1 public access on the DNR list.
- Most recent DNR fish survey: (standard survey).
- Douglas County, nearest town Alexandria; DNR lake number (DOW) 21010300.
Depth map
Bathymetric contours from the Minnesota DNR lake survey mapped 7/22/1959 (orig map); depths in feet. Simplified for the web; not for navigation.
Stocking history
| Year | Species | Size | Number | Pounds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Walleye1 | fingerlings | 1,125 | 75.0 |
| 2024 | Walleye1 | fingerlings | 1,350 | 50.0 |
| 2024 | Walleye | fingerlings | 415 | 47.0 |
| 2023 | Walleye1 | fingerlings | 2,000 | 100.0 |
| 2022 | Walleye1 | fingerlings | 2,220 | 111.0 |
| 2020 | Walleye1 | fingerlings | 888 | 111.0 |
| 2019 | Walleye | fingerlings | 356 | 89.0 |
| 2018 | Walleye1 | fingerlings | 1,776 | 111.0 |
| 2018 | Walleye | adults | 9 | 18.0 |
| 2018 | Walleye | fingerlings | 60 | 5.0 |
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 |
DNR fish survey, 2025
| Species | Gear | Catch per net | Total catch | Avg lb |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Largemouth bass | Standard electrofishing | 38.77 | 62 | 1.05 |
| Bluegill | Standard gill nets | 38.00 | 228 | 0.26 |
| Yellow bullhead | Standard gill nets | 8.67 | 52 | 0.73 |
| Northern pike | Standard gill nets | 8.50 | 51 | 2.11 |
| Hybrid sunfish | Standard gill nets | 4.17 | 25 | 0.27 |
| Walleye | Standard gill nets | 1.33 | 8 | 2.49 |
| Pumpkinseed | Standard gill nets | 1.33 | 8 | 0.23 |
| Black crappie | Standard gill nets | 1.33 | 8 | 0.43 |
| Rock bass | Standard gill nets | 1.00 | 6 | 0.30 |
| Bluegill | Standard trap nets | 17.22 | 155 | 0.08 |
| Hybrid sunfish | Standard trap nets | 8.11 | 73 | 0.20 |
| Yellow bullhead | Standard trap nets | 3.67 | 33 | 0.81 |
| Pumpkinseed | Standard trap nets | 1.89 | 17 | 0.18 |
| Largemouth bass | Standard trap nets | 0.67 | 6 | 0.65 |
| Common carp | Standard trap nets | 0.44 | 4 | 9.39 |
| Rock bass | Standard trap nets | 0.44 | 4 | 0.34 |
| Black crappie | Standard trap nets | 0.33 | 3 | 0.11 |
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.
Lake Cowdry is a 243-acre moderately fertile basin located a few miles northwest of downtown Alexandria in Douglas County. Maximum and mean depths are approximately 52 and 25 feet, respectively. Lake Cowdry lies within the Long Prairie River watershed. Primary inflows come from Taylor Lake via a navigable (small boats only) culvert under Lake Cowdry Road NW. The lake outflows to Lake Darling via a channel that runs under the Central Lakes Trail. A concrete leveling sill within this channel limits navigation to mostly non-motorized watercraft (canoes, paddleboards, kayaks, etc.). Residential development surrounds the majority of the shoreline. Water quality and clarity are considered good and have further increased in recent years following zebra mussel infestation. Secchi disk readings often exceed 15 feet during summer months. A public water access is located on the northeast shore off of E Lake Cowdry Road. A standard lake survey was completed during summer 2025 to assess the fish community of Lake Cowdry. Survey methodology included electrofishing, gill nets, and trap nets. Survey results were indicative of a typical bass-panfish fishery found in smaller, heavily vegetated basins in west-central Minnesota. Largemouth Bass and Northern Pike were abundant but most of the catch was comprised of small- to medium-sized fish. Mean size of bass collected with electrofishing was 10.8 inches but bass up to 18.9 inches were sampled. Mean length of Northern Pike was 21.0 inches. Very few pike exceeding the upper end of the North-central zone protected slot limit (i.e., 26 inches) were captured. Anglers are encouraged to harvest these surplus smaller pike that are below the protected slot limit (i.e., 22 inches). Panfishes dominated net catches in 2025. Bluegill, Pumpkinseed and hybrid sunfishes are all abundant. These populations consist of mainly smaller fish in Lake Cowdry, but a few sunfish over 8 inches were observed in the survey. Bluegill growth rates are slow, most of the Bluegill over 8 inches were at least 10 years old. Black Crappie catch rates were low, but they are typically hard to sample in these mid-summer surveys. Large schools of Black Crappie were observed in shallow water during the spring Largemouth Bass survey. Yellow Perch were present but this population is limited and is typically not targeted by anglers. Walleye were also present in small numbers due to previous stockings and likely emigration from connected basins. Regular Walleye fingerling stockings were discontinued by the MN DNR in 2016 due to extremely poor survival of stocked…
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.
Hear when the states we cover post stockings
One email a week in season: which waters in the states we cover were stocked, straight from the state agencies' own postings. No spam, no fishing-gear ads in the mail.
Free · double opt-in · unsubscribe anytime · we store only your email.