Pemmican Lake

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

Minnesota · Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) · DOW 16008500

DNR records show 5 stocking entries at Pemmican Lake since 2017, most recently brook trout fingerlings in 2025 (2,000 fish).

• Pemmican Lake has 5 DNR stocking records across 5 years (2017-2025): brook trout (5).
• The most-stocked species by count is brook trout: 9,884 fish on record.
• Maximum depth 51 ft; surface area 28 acres, 5 littoral acres, 1.2 miles of shoreline, per the DNR lake survey.
• Average water clarity (Secchi depth) 14.8 ft.
• Fish species DNR lists here: brook trout.
• 1 public access on the DNR list.
• Most recent DNR fish survey: June 24, 2019 (standard survey).
• Cook County, nearest town Grand Marais; DNR lake number (DOW) 16008500.

Stocking history

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

Public accesses

DNR fish survey, 2019

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.

Pemmican Lake is a designated stream trout lake that has been managed exclusively for brook trout since 1957. It is located atop a ridge on the south side of Mountain Lake, and access is challenging. Management goals for the lake are maintaining a brook trout population with a minimum gill net catch of 3.0 fish/set, with two catchable-sized (over 10 inch) year classes present. This was the second of three surveys scheduled in the 2010 lake management plan to determine whether goals for the lake could be met with a stocking frequency reduced from annual to every odd-numbered year (beginning in 2011). The first survey was completed in 2012, the third is scheduled for 2025. Because so few net sets are used in these small stream trout lakes, little faith can be placed on the catch seen in a single survey; however, brook trout seemed to have been fairly abundant in 2019. The 2019 gill net catch in Pemmican Lake was one of the higher catches seen in this lake, and was similar to the catch seen in the last (2012) survey. Most of the catch consisted of two-year-old fish from a 2017 stocking of Tobin Harbor-strain brook trout. Use of that strain is fairly new to Minnesota, and their performance has not yet been fully evaluated. Survival of the 2017 stocking seemed to have been good, despite their relatively small size when stocked (57 fgl/lb). Growth had been close to average; fish reached a mean length of 8.7 inches at the end of their second year, compared to an area mean of 9.1 inches. There had also been some survival of fish from the 2015 stocking of Minnesota Wild-strain brook trout. The presence of those four-year-old fish met the goal of having two catchable-sized year classes present. Growth of the Minnesota Wild fish had also been close to average for the area. No undesirable fish species were taken in the 2019 survey. Minnows observed in shoreline areas would have supplemented invertebrate forage in this lake, and would have helped fuel good brook trout growth.

Minnesota DNR survey narrative, June 24, 2019.

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