Farm Island Lake

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

Minnesota · Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) · DOW 01015900

DNR records show 12 stocking entries at Farm Island Lake since 2016, most recently walleye fingerlings in 2025 (2,520 fish).

• Farm Island Lake has 12 DNR stocking records across 9 years (2016-2025): walleye (12).
• The most-stocked species by count is walleye: 8,568,933 fish on record.
• Maximum depth 56 ft; surface area 2,005 acres, 883 littoral acres, 14.6 miles of shoreline, per the DNR lake survey.
• Average water clarity (Secchi depth) 9.9 ft.
• Fish species DNR lists here: bigmouth buffalo, black bullhead, black crappie, bluegill, bowfin (dogfish), brown bullhead, green sunfish, hybrid sunfish, largemouth bass, northern pike, pumpkinseed, rock bass, and 6 more.
• 2 public accesses on the DNR list.
• Most recent DNR fish survey: October 7, 2025 (targeted survey).
• Aitkin County, nearest town Bennettville; DNR lake number (DOW) 01015900.

Depth map

Bathymetric contours from the Minnesota DNR lake survey mapped 1/17/1957 (orig map); depths in feet. Simplified for the web; not for navigation.

Stocking history

¹ fish purchased and stocked by private citizens and sporting groups. ² fish purchased by the DNR for stocking.

Public accesses

DNR fish survey, 2025

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 night electrofishing (EW) is conducted annually to assess Walleye recruitment by monitoring the abundance of young-of-the-year (YOY) and yearling (age-1) Walleye. Previous fry stocking assessments have occurred on Farm Island Lake (2010-2016) via fall night electrofishing. In these assessments, it was concluded that while some natural reproduction does occur, although in general, non-stocked year classes have not appreciably contributed to the fishery when compared to stocked year classes. Further, it was determined that annual fall sampling should continue to occur to monitor Walleye production. Electrofishing was conducted on the night of October 7, 2025. Sampling time was 2 hours and resulted in a YOY Walleye catch rate of 0.0 per hour (rates reported as run time) and down from 1.5 YOY per hour in 2024. Historical catch rates have averaged 40.8 YOY per hour in stocked years and 2.1 YOY per hour in non-stocked years. Low catch rates in recent assessments may be the result of the substantial increase and peak abundance of invasive Zebra Mussels. Zebra mussels are possibly limiting Walleye fry survival due to intensive filter feeding that limits the amount of food available for larval fish. The catch rate for age 1 Walleye was also 0.0 per hour and comparable to previous yearling catch rates in 2018 and 2019. Nineteen older Walleye were sampled during the assessment, ranging from 12.5 to 20.9 inches and had an average length of 16.8 inches. Due to the apparent poor fry survival in 2025, and lack of age 1 fish from 2024, about 12,900 fingerlings were stocked in fall 2025 (DNR and Farm Island Lake Association) to help supplement Walleye recruitment in Farm Island Lake.

Minnesota DNR survey narrative, October 7, 2025.

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