Mille Lacs Lake
Mille Lacs County, Minnesota - DNR stocking history, depth and survey data
Minnesota · Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) · DOW 48000200
DNR records show 13 stocking entries at Mille Lacs Lake since 2016, most recently muskellunge adults in 2025 (40 fish).
- Mille Lacs Lake has 13 DNR stocking records across 7 years (2016-2025): muskellunge (9), walleye (4).
- The most-stocked species by count is walleye: 30,150,000 fish on record.
- Maximum depth 42 ft, mean depth 28 ft; surface area 128,250 acres, 33,129 littoral acres, 105.5 miles of shoreline, per the DNR lake survey.
- Average water clarity (Secchi depth) 11.0 ft.
- Fish species DNR lists here: black bullhead, black crappie, bluegill, bowfin (dogfish), brown bullhead, burbot, common carp, green sunfish, hybrid sunfish, largemouth bass, muskellunge, northern pike, and 9 more.
- 11 public accesses on the DNR list.
- Most recent DNR fish survey: (standard survey).
- Mille Lacs County, nearest town Garrison; DNR lake number (DOW) 48000200.
Depth map
Bathymetric contours from the Minnesota DNR lake survey mapped 7/17/1944 (orig map); depths in feet. Simplified for the web; not for navigation.
Stocking history
| Year | Species | Size | Number | Pounds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Muskellunge | adults | 40 | 115.7 |
| 2025 | Muskellunge | yearlings | 723 | 560.6 |
| 2024 | Muskellunge | fingerlings | 3,000 | 757.1 |
| 2022 | Muskellunge | fingerlings | 3,000 | 290.4 |
| 2020 | Muskellunge9 | yearlings | 575 | 584.0 |
| 2020 | Muskellunge | yearlings | 425 | 531.2 |
| 2018 | Muskellunge | fingerlings | 3,000 | 746.5 |
| 2018 | Walleye | fry | 10,000,000 | 95.1 |
| 2017 | Walleye4 | fry | 600,000 | 5.5 |
| 2017 | Walleye | fry | 9,550,000 | 92.8 |
| 2016 | Muskellunge | fingerlings | 954 | 256.8 |
| 2016 | Muskellunge | fingerlings | 2,107 | 526.4 |
| 2016 | Walleye | fry | 10,000,000 | 97.9 |
4 fish cooperatively purchased, raised, and/or stocked by Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe. 9 fish cooperatively purchased, raised, and/or stocked by DNR and other agencies or 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 | Concrete |
| concrete ramp | Minnesota DNR | Concrete |
| concrete ramp | Minnesota DNR | Concrete - Two ramp access. The west ramp was destroyed by ice. Ramp tends to be covered with sand |
| concrete ramp | Minnesota DNR | Concrete |
| concrete ramp | Minnesota DNR | Concrete |
| concrete ramp | Minnesota DNR | Concrete |
| concrete ramp | Minnesota DNR | Concrete |
| concrete ramp | Minnesota DNR | Concrete |
| concrete ramp | Minnesota DNR | Concrete |
| concrete ramp | Minnesota DNR | Concrete |
| concrete ramp | Minnesota DNR | Concrete |
DNR fish survey, 2025
| Species | Gear | Catch per net | Total catch | Avg lb |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yellow perch | Special electrofishing | 145.00 | 58 | 0.04 |
| Smallmouth bass | Special electrofishing | 105.00 | 42 | 0.00 |
| Walleye | Special electrofishing | 47.50 | 19 | 0.12 |
| Largemouth bass | Special electrofishing | 37.50 | 15 | 0.01 |
| Logperch | Special electrofishing | 30.00 | 12 | 0.00 |
| Spottail shiner | Special electrofishing | 27.50 | 11 | 0.00 |
| Bluegill | Special electrofishing | 17.50 | 7 | 0.01 |
| Rock bass | Special electrofishing | 10.00 | 4 | 0.06 |
| Walleye | Fall electrofishing | 96.64 | 362 | 0.16 |
| Yellow perch | Standard gill nets | 81.31 | 4,228 | 0.21 |
| Tullibee (cisco) | Standard gill nets | 17.67 | 919 | 0.38 |
| Walleye | Standard gill nets | 9.73 | 506 | 2.23 |
| Northern pike | Standard gill nets | 2.67 | 139 | 4.51 |
| Rock bass | Standard gill nets | 2.65 | 138 | 0.44 |
| Smallmouth bass | Standard gill nets | 1.87 | 97 | 2.01 |
| White sucker | Standard gill nets | 0.88 | 46 | 2.23 |
| Brown bullhead | Standard gill nets | 0.12 | 6 | 1.43 |
| Yellow perch | Special gill nets | 41.35 | 1,075 | 0.03 |
| Tullibee (cisco) | Special gill nets | 22.54 | 586 | 0.07 |
| Spottail shiner | Special gill nets | 7.27 | 189 | 0.00 |
| Walleye | Special gill nets | 0.73 | 19 | 0.21 |
| Trout-perch | Special gill nets | 0.27 | 7 | 0.01 |
| Rock bass | Special gill nets | 0.19 | 5 | 0.01 |
| Black crappie | Special gill nets | 0.15 | 4 | 0.06 |
| Brassy minnow | Special gill nets | 0.04 | 1 | 0.00 |
| Smallmouth bass | Standard electrofishing | 33.53 | 426 | 2.97 |
| Largemouth bass | Standard electrofishing | 0.16 | 2 | 3.46 |
| Northern pike | Standard trap nets | 3.32 | 259 | 4.45 |
| Muskellunge | Standard trap nets | 0.24 | 19 | 2.85 |
| Walleye | Standard trap nets | 0.01 | 1 | 4.40 |
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.
Sampling Programs Mille Lacs Lake is one of ten lakes in Minnesota's Large Lake Program. These lakes have annual sampling of the fish populations, and frequent creel surveys. Specific to Mille Lacs Lake, sampling programs focusing on Walleye, Yellow Perch, Smallmouth Bass, and Northern Pike are conducted annually. Additionally, we have annual summer and winter creel surveys to document angler use and fish harvest. Walleye Walleye management on Mille Lacs Lake is conducted cooperatively with the eight Tribes signatory to the Treaty of 1837. A safe harvest level for Walleye is determined annually and is based on information collected through various sampling programs. For the 2026 fishing year (December 2025 through November 2026) the state's allocation of the safe harvest level was set at 105,300 pounds, which is around a 7% decrease from 2025 and is based on a similar percentage of decrease in the lake's adult Walleye biomass over the same time period. The reduction in Walleye biomass occurred, in part, due to a weak age-class (2023) of fish recruiting into the fishable stock and a reduction in condition (plumpness) for medium sized (14"-20") Walleye due to reduced levels of forage for small and medium sized fish. By agreement, neither the Tribal nor State fishery harvest may exceed their respective quota. Fishing regulations are selected that offer the maximum opportunity to participate in the fishery (minimize likelihood of closures) and to offer opportunity to harvest, when possible, while staying within the quota. Despite the reduction in quota, summer Walleye regulations were actually liberalized because we were observing relatively low 2026 winter Walleye harvest rates. Regulations for the summer are a three fish bag limit, with a minimum size of 17 inches, with only one fish over 20 inches. During mid-summer of 2025 we began observing angler Walleye catch rates begin to increase. It is more common to observe Walleye catch rates decrease in July due to new forage that becomes large enough for Walleye to easily find and consume, so observing the opposite where catch rates are increasing is a strong indicator that new forage in the form of age-0 Yellow Perch is not available. Forage gill nets that were set in early September showed age-0 Yellow Perch levels in the fall of 2025 were the lowest observed. The same forage gill net assessment confirmed a high abundance of age-1 Yellow Perch and age-1 Tullibee. The age-1 fish are suitable forage prey for Mille Lacs Walleye over 20 inches, although previous diet studies have indicated a preference for the…
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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