Fleming Lake
Aitkin County, Minnesota - DNR stocking history, depth and survey data
Minnesota · Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) · DOW 01010500
Fleming Lake has no DNR stocking rows in LakeFinder; this page carries its DNR depth, access and survey data.
- Fleming Lake shows no stocking records in Minnesota DNR LakeFinder as of .
- Maximum depth 15 ft, mean depth 6 ft; surface area 319 acres, 314 littoral acres, 3.6 miles of shoreline, per the DNR lake survey.
- Average water clarity (Secchi depth) 2.8 ft.
- Fish species DNR lists here: bigmouth buffalo, black bullhead, black crappie, bluegill, bowfin (dogfish), brown bullhead, hybrid sunfish, largemouth bass, northern pike, pumpkinseed, yellow bullhead, yellow perch.
- 1 public access on the DNR list.
- Most recent DNR fish survey: (standard survey).
- Aitkin County, nearest town Palisade; DNR lake number (DOW) 01010500.
Depth map
Bathymetric contours from the Minnesota DNR lake survey mapped 6/2/1970 (orig map); depths in feet. Simplified for the web; not for navigation.
Public accesses
| Type | Owner | Where |
|---|---|---|
| concrete ramp | Minnesota DNR |
DNR fish survey, 2017
| Species | Gear | Catch per net | Total catch | Avg lb |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yellow perch | Standard gill nets | 100.67 | 604 | 0.22 |
| Black crappie | Standard gill nets | 51.00 | 306 | 0.30 |
| Bluegill | Standard gill nets | 9.00 | 54 | 0.26 |
| Black bullhead | Standard gill nets | 6.17 | 37 | 0.43 |
| Northern pike | Standard gill nets | 1.50 | 9 | 4.37 |
| Yellow bullhead | Standard gill nets | 1.33 | 8 | 1.29 |
| Golden shiner | Standard gill nets | 1.17 | 7 | 0.11 |
| Brown bullhead | Standard gill nets | 0.67 | 4 | 0.48 |
| Bluegill | Standard trap nets | 20.56 | 185 | 0.29 |
| Black crappie | Standard trap nets | 12.22 | 110 | 0.34 |
| Bowfin (dogfish) | Standard trap nets | 1.78 | 16 | 4.54 |
| Yellow bullhead | Standard trap nets | 1.67 | 15 | 1.30 |
| Northern pike | Standard trap nets | 0.56 | 5 | 7.02 |
| Yellow perch | Standard trap nets | 0.44 | 4 | 0.17 |
| Pumpkinseed | Standard trap nets | 0.33 | 3 | 0.11 |
| Bigmouth buffalo | Standard trap nets | 0.11 | 1 | 15.03 |
| Largemouth bass | Standard electrofishing | 19.80 | 33 | 1.77 |
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.
Fleming Lake is a shallow, very fertile lake located in central Aitkin County, five and one-half miles south of Palisade. Fleming Lake has a history of occasional partial winterkills, although there are no recent reports of such an event. The lake is a popular destination for many anglers in search of northern pike, bluegill and black crappie. The primary management species for Fleming Lake are northern pike, black crappie and bluegill. Yellow perch are considered a secondary management species and offer a great forage base for the lake's healthy northern pike population. Largemouth bass are also present in the lake and spring electrofishing was conducted for the first time in 2017, to gauge their abundance. A variety of fisheries management surveys have taken place on the lake dating back to 1950. Currently the lake is not stocked and is surveyed on a ten year rotation. At 1.5/gill net lift northern pike were not overly abundant in this survey and showed a decrease from 2008, but they do have plenty of yellow perch as forage and have maintained a nice size structure. The average size for pike was 26.7 inches and individuals up to 32 inches were sampled. Bluegill abundance has decreased from the previous survey, but were still within the normal range for this lake type at 20.6/trap net. The size structure of bluegill was favorable with a mean length of 6.5 inches and fish close to 9 inches being sampled. Yellow perch are well above average in abundance for this class of lake. Maintaining a good yellow perch population is important for the health of this fishery. Yellow perch provide an excellent forage base for the northern pike and are likely a big reason for the favorable northern pike size structure. Healthy perch populations are also known to positively affect other species such as bluegill, which also have respectable size structure in Fleming Lake. It's thought that yellow perch play a role in the dynamics of bluegill sunfish by reducing the densities of young of year bluegills so they do not become stunted. Fleming Lake is a "numbers" lake when it comes to black crappie and based on our records, they have never been large sized. The largest sampled this year was 9.6 inches in gill nets, but acceptable size fish, over 8 inches, are quite abundant. In the trap nets there were 6 measured larger than 10 inches with the largest being 10.3 inches. This species does well in shallow, fertile lakes. With the advent of curly-leaf pond weed in Fleming Lake, there may be changes to the water quality and fish community in the not-so-distant future. It is…
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.
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