Sisseton Lake

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

Minnesota · Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) · DOW 46002500

DNR records show 19 stocking entries at Sisseton Lake since 2016, most recently walleye fry in 2025 (50,000 fish).

• Sisseton Lake has 19 DNR stocking records across 8 years (2016-2025): walleye (13), muskellunge (5), yellow perch (1).
• The most-stocked species by count is walleye: 302,876 fish on record.
• Maximum depth 19 ft; surface area 138 acres, 100 littoral acres, 2.8 miles of shoreline, per the DNR lake survey.
• Average water clarity (Secchi depth) 1.1 ft.
• Fish species DNR lists here: bigmouth buffalo, black bullhead, black crappie, bluegill, channel catfish, common carp, freshwater drum, green sunfish, hybrid sunfish, largemouth bass, muskellunge, northern pike, and 8 more.
• 1 public access on the DNR list.
• Most recent DNR fish survey: September 22, 2023 (targeted survey).
• Martin County, nearest town Fairmont; DNR lake number (DOW) 46002500.

Depth map

Bathymetric contours from the Minnesota DNR lake survey mapped 8/23/1956 (orig map); depths in feet. Simplified for the web; not for navigation.

Stocking history

¹ fish purchased and stocked by private citizens and sporting groups.

Public accesses

DNR fish survey, 2023

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.

Walleye have been managed for many years in the Fairmont chain-of-lakes. Past stockings have included Walleye fry, fingerling, yearlings, and adults. Essentially, whatever life stage of Walleye was available they would be stocked into the lakes. However, since 2019 the Fairmont chain-of-lakes has been stocked with Walleye fry from the Lake Sarah egg take operation. Other southwest Minnesota lakes saw good success when Walleye fry were stocked in the spring of 2023. Therefore, daytime electrofishing was conducted in September to determine if Walleye fry stocking was successful on Sisseton Lake, Budd Lake, and Hall Lake. One 15 minute station was done on each lake. Twenty-seven age-0 Walleye were captured on Sisseton (N=16), Hall (N=5), and Budd (N=6) Lakes. Catch rates varied from lake-to-lake; 57.6 per hour on Sisseton Lake, 22.9 per hour on Budd Lake, and 20.0 per hour on Hall Lake. However, the overall catch rate for the chain-of-lakes after 45 minutes of electrofishing was 36.0 per hour. It has been determined from previous Minnesota age-0 Walleye electrofishing that a fall electrofishing catch rate over 30 per hour has a good chance of resulting in a fishable year-class of Walleye for anglers 2 or 3 years later. Additionally, the average length of Walleye was 8.1 inches in Sisseton Lake, 8.2 inches in Budd Lake, and 7.9 inches in Hall Lake. When Walleye reach lengths exceeding 6 inches in their first year of growth, there is a good chance that they will survive the winter and avoid predation. A gill net and trap net survey was conducted on Sisseton Lake in August 2023 and age-0 fish were very abundant with 10 out of 14 caught in gill nets from the newly stocked 2023 year class. All that to state, there is a great chance that the 2023 Walleye year-class on the Fairmont chain-of-lakes will result in an abundant fishable population for anglers, only time will tell.

Minnesota DNR survey narrative, September 22, 2023.

All Minnesota stockings · every Minnesota lake with a page · state CSV · this lake on DNR LakeFinder