Missing Link Lake

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

Minnesota · Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) · DOW 16052900

DNR records show 6 stocking entries at Missing Link Lake since 2016, most recently brook trout fingerlings in 2025 (3,000 fish).

• Missing Link Lake has 6 DNR stocking records across 6 years (2016-2025): brook trout (6).
• The most-stocked species by count is brook trout: 15,000 fish on record.
• Maximum depth 25 ft, mean depth 12 ft; surface area 37 acres, 25 littoral acres, 1.9 miles of shoreline, per the DNR lake survey.
• Average water clarity (Secchi depth) 11.5 ft.
• Fish species DNR lists here: brook trout, white sucker.
• 2 public accesses on the DNR list.
• Most recent DNR fish survey: June 8, 2016 (standard survey).
• Cook County, nearest town Grand Marais; DNR lake number (DOW) 16052900.

Stocking history

⁸ fish cooperatively purchased, raised, and/or stocked by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Public accesses

DNR fish survey, 2016

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.

Missing Link is a designated stream trout lake that has been stocked with Rainbow or Brook Trout on a regular basis since at least 1933. Since 2003 Brook Trout fingerlings have been stocked annually. The current goal for Brook Trout in this lake is to maintain a population consisting of at least two year classes of fish 10-inches or larger, with some fish over 16 inches present. This survey was the first of two scheduled in the 2014 lake management plan to complete an evaluation of the shift to annual stocking that began in 2003. Given the low number of net sets typically used in surveys of this small lake, the gill net catch in a single survey may not be a good indicator of fish abundance, or of changes in abundance. The Brook Trout gill net catch in 2016 fell within the normal range (2.7-13.8 fish/net) seen in spring surveys of stream trout lakes in this area (data through 2014), and was similar other catches seen in this lake since 1991. Management goals for the lake were met in 2016; three year classes contributed fish larger than 10 inches, and one fish over 16 inches in length was taken. Long-term survival seemed to have been good, with fish as old as four years present, and no recently stocked year classes were missing. Brook Trout growth appeared to have been fairly good; fish reached a mean length of 9.7 inches by the end of their second year, compared to an area average of 9.1 inches. Brook Trout in this lake must compete with White Sucker for invertebrate forage; however, White Sucker abundance has not been excessive. The 2016 White Sucker gill net catch was close to the average (6.5 fish/set) seen in spring surveys of stream trout lakes in this area. A temperature-oxygen profile measured on September 6 2016, by a crew on their way into Mavis Lake, found optimal conditions for Brook Trout (water temperature 5.0 ppm) at depths of 10-17 feet. Since lakes in this area have typically started to cool by early September, and water temperatures were barely within the optimal range at that time, it is likely that more stressful conditions would have prevailed in this lake in August.

Minnesota DNR survey narrative, June 8, 2016.

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