Oriniack Lake

St. Louis County, Minnesota - DNR stocking history, depth and survey data

Minnesota · Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) · DOW 69058700

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

• Oriniack Lake shows no stocking records in Minnesota DNR LakeFinder as of September 2, 2026.
• Maximum depth 17 ft; surface area 744 acres, 621 littoral acres, 11.2 miles of shoreline, per the DNR lake survey.
• Average water clarity (Secchi depth) 7.0 ft.
• Fish species DNR lists here: northern pike, rock bass, walleye, white sucker, yellow perch.
• 1 public access on the DNR list.
• Most recent DNR fish survey: June 12, 2018 (standard survey).
• St. Louis County, nearest town Tower; DNR lake number (DOW) 69058700.

Depth map

Bathymetric contours from the Minnesota DNR lake survey mapped 9/14/1971 (orig map); depths in feet. Simplified for the web; not for navigation.

Public accesses

DNR fish survey, 2018

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.

Oriniack Lake is located within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) within the Superior National Forest and is a non-motorized lake. It is approximately 14 miles north of Tower and one portage off of Trout Lake. It has a maximum depth of 17 feet and bog-stained water. There is only one official access to Oriniack which is a 0.6 mile portage from Trout Lake. There is a 25 horsepower outboard motor limit on Trout Lake and snowmobiles are not allowed. Parties looking to access Oriniack can use a motor boat to cross Trout Lake and bring a canoe with them to use once they portage to Oriniack. BWCAW permits are required to visit Oriniack through an official entry point and there are four U. S. Forest Service maintained campsites on Oriniack. On June 12, 2018 Oriniack was weakly thermally stratified with a surface temperature of 70 F and a bottom temperature of 59 F. Oxygen levels were adequate for gamefish throughout the water column. Lake bottom substrates along the shoreline of Oriniack are dominated by boulder with a few sandy bays on the north side of the lake. Muck bottom bays exist throughout the rest of the lake. Aquatic plants are relatively sparse, however some aquatic vegetation was present off shore from the handful of sandy bays on the north side of the lake. One inlet enters on the south side of the lake from Merritt Lake and the only outlet (Hilda Creek) drains to the Vermilion River out of the northwest side of Oriniack. There are no records of stocking in Oriniack Lake. The overall gillnet catch rate for all fish combined was 25.1 fish/net which was second highest on record for the lake. Total yield was 34.1 pounds/net which was the highest on record. Fish species sampled were walleye, northern pike, yellow perch, white sucker, and rock bass. One-hundred nineteen walleye were sampled for a catch rate of 9.9 fish/gill net. This catch rate was good when compared to other lakes in the Tower area. Sizes were also good with an average length of 14 inches with the largest walleye measuring nearly 27 inches. Growth rates were somewhat slow as is sometimes the case in bog-stained lakes. Walleye were aged up to 20 years old and the 2014 and 2015 year classes appeared strong. The northern pike gillnet catch was 5.3 fish/net which was higher than normal compared to past surveys on the lake. Sizes were good with the average fish weighing nearly 3 pounds. The average length was just over 22 inches with the largest pike measuring nearly 39 inches. These sizes were similar to fish caught in previous surveys. The yellow perch gillnet catch was…

Minnesota DNR survey narrative, June 12, 2018.

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