Fall Lake

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

Minnesota · Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) · DOW 38081100

Fall Lake has no DNR stocking rows in LakeFinder; this page carries its DNR depth, access and survey data.

• Fall Lake shows no stocking records in Minnesota DNR LakeFinder as of September 2, 2026.
• Maximum depth 32 ft; surface area 2,258 acres, 1,178 littoral acres, 30.9 miles of shoreline, per the DNR lake survey.
• Average water clarity (Secchi depth) 4.4 ft.
• Fish species DNR lists here: black crappie, bluegill, burbot, cisco species, northern pike, rock bass, shorthead redhorse, smallmouth bass, tullibee (cisco), walleye, white sucker, yellow perch.
• 5 public accesses on the DNR list.
• Most recent DNR fish survey: August 22, 2022 (targeted survey).
• Lake County, nearest town Winton; DNR lake number (DOW) 38081100.

Depth map

Bathymetric contours from the Minnesota DNR lake survey mapped 7/24/1959 (orig map); depths in feet. Simplified for the web; not for navigation.

Public accesses

DNR fish survey, 2022

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.

Fall Lake is located four miles northeast of Ely. There are three main public accesses, two of which have concrete ramps, the other is gravel. This 2,258 acre lake contains two substantial inlets. The Shagawa River comes in on the west end of the lake and the Kawishiwi River enters on the south side at the site of the Winton Hydroelectric dam. The one outlet flows over a low head dam located on the north side of the lake on its way to Newton, then Basswood Lake. Fall has a maximum depth of 32 feet and brown colored water. On August 22, 2022 Fall Lake was weakly thermally stratified with a surface temperature of 73 F and a bottom temperature of 63 F. Oxygen levels were adequate for gamefish to a depth of 23 feet where the water temperature was 68 F. Shoal-water substrates consist of mostly boulder with some areas of gravel and sand. The overall gillnet catch rate for all fish combined was 32.8 fish/net which was just below the historic average on Fall Lake. Total yield was 25.9 lbs/net which was also just below the average of past surveys on the lake. Fish species sampled were walleye, tullibee, yellow perch, white sucker, northern pike, rock bass, and smallmouth bass. Two-hundred walleye were sampled in gill nets for a catch rate of 16.7 fish/net which was very good compared to other similar lakes and the highest catch rate in the history of Fall Lake. It also ranks 7th out of 198 surveys of walleye lakes in the area. Sizes ranged from 4 to 26 inches with an average of 12 inches. Growth was slow as it took the average walleye six years to reach 15 inches. Ages ranged from 0 to 16 years. One hundred eighty-four of 199 fish (92%) were age-4 or younger and there were no missing year classes between 2013 and 2022. The northern pike gillnet catch rate of 3.3 fish/net was near the lake's historic average and better than average compared to other similar lakes. Lengths ranged from 15 to 27.5 inches with an average of 19.5 inches. The yellow perch gillnet catch rate was 4.1 fish/net which was just below average for Fall Lake. Lengths were similar to past surveys with a range from 5 to 11 inches and an average of 8 inches. Fifty-four cisco were sampled for a catch rate of 4.5 fish/net. This was below the lake's historic average. Sizes were 7 to 17 inches with an average of 11 inches. Sizes were similar to past surveys.

Minnesota DNR survey narrative, August 22, 2022.

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