Round Lake (Jackson County)

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

Minnesota · Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) · DOW 32006900

DNR records show 14 stocking entries at Round Lake (Jackson County) since 2016, most recently walleye fry in 2025 (256,000 fish).

• Round Lake (Jackson County) has 14 DNR stocking records across 9 years (2016-2025): walleye (13), yellow perch (1).
• The most-stocked species by count is walleye: 3,572,000 fish on record.
• Maximum depth 9 ft, mean depth 8 ft; surface area 930 acres, 930 littoral acres, 5.0 miles of shoreline, per the DNR lake survey.
• Average water clarity (Secchi depth) 1.0 ft.
• Fish species DNR lists here: bigmouth buffalo, black bullhead, black crappie, channel catfish, common carp, freshwater drum, green sunfish, northern pike, orangespotted sunfish, quillback, river redhorse, shortnose gar, and 5 more.
• 3 public accesses on the DNR list.
• Most recent DNR fish survey: October 7, 2025 (targeted survey).
• Jackson County, nearest town Round Lake; DNR lake number (DOW) 32006900.

Depth map

Bathymetric contours from the Minnesota DNR lake survey mapped 7/6/1947 (orig map); depths in feet. Simplified for the web; not for navigation.

Stocking history

Public accesses

DNR fish survey, 2025

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.

Round Lake is a 930-acre lake, located in Jackson County approximately 9 miles southeast of the City of Worthington. Round Lake was part of a research project that evaluated the performance of two strains of Walleye, the Lower Mississippi Strain (LMS) and the Mississippi Strain (MIS), from 2018 to 2022. However, during 2020, no Walleye stocking statewide was done due to the COVID pandemic. During the study stocking events, the total Walleye fry quota for Round Lake was 473,500, of which half were MIS and half were LMS. The MIS Walleye come from northern Minnesota (Pine River egg-take near Brainerd) and until recently, were the majority strain stocked in Windom management area. The LMS originated in the Cannon River system, was stocked in area lakes in the 1980's and early 1990's and has persisted in some area Walleye populations despite extensive stocking of northern Minnesota strains of Walleye. LMS Walleye are present in Murray County's Lake Sarah (1 of 3 LMS egg-take locations, others in Waterville area and Hinkley Area), a lake that hasn't been stocked since 1991 because the Walleye population is sustained at high levels through natural reproduction. The study found that LMS Walleye performed better than MIS and thus would be stocked exclusively into Round Lake moving forward. To continue to evaluate LMS Walleye fry stocking in 2025-night electrofishing was on October 7, 2025. Two hours of electrofishing was utilized so that the data could be incorporated into a continuing statewide study of Walleye lakes with and without zebra mussels (Round Lake is without zebra mussels). 256,000 LMS Walleye fry were stocked in Round Lake in 2025, half the amount stocked during the LMS vs. MIS study. This reduction is a result of LMS advantage found during the study on Round Lake and the lack of MIS Walleye that were found in sampling. Essentially, we discovered we could stock half the amount of Walleye fry than historically done and realize a similar outcome, if not better, with LMS strain Walleye. 213 age-0 Walleye were captured during 2.0 hours of electrofishing (106.2 per hour). Walleye ranged in length from 4.2 to 8.1 inches and averaged 5.7 inches. A night electrofishing catch rate greater than 30 per hour with fish larger than 5 inches is a good indication that the stocking was successful, and the fish have a high likelihood of getting to 13 inches or greater (harvestable size). Overall, the Walleye population is doing well on Round Lake and continued LMS fry stocking will help to boost the potential of the population. Down the road, if natural…

Minnesota DNR survey narrative, October 7, 2025.

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