Surber Lake

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

Minnesota · Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) · DOW 16034300

DNR records show 9 stocking entries at Surber Lake since 2016, most recently brook trout fingerlings in 2025 (500 fish).

• Surber Lake has 9 DNR stocking records across 9 years (2016-2025): brook trout (8), rainbow trout (1).
• The most-stocked species by count is brook trout: 4,878 fish on record.
• Maximum depth 21 ft, mean depth 9 ft; surface area 7 acres, 6 littoral acres, 0.6 miles of shoreline, per the DNR lake survey.
• Average water clarity (Secchi depth) 6.5 ft.
• Fish species DNR lists here: brook trout.
• 1 public access on the DNR list.
• Most recent DNR fish survey: September 19, 2022 (targeted survey).
• Cook County, nearest town Grand Marais; DNR lake number (DOW) 16034300.

Stocking history

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

Public accesses

DNR fish survey, 2022

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.

Surber Lake is located about 30 miles north of the City of Grand Marais near the mid-Gunflint Trail population center. The lake is accessible via a short walk-in trail from an unmarked pull off spot along the Old Gunflint Trail (Cook County Road 92). Surber Lake has been managed for stream trout since at least 1955 and exclusively for Brook Trout since 2003. The lake is currently stocked annually with 500 Brook Trout fingerlings. Current management goals for the Brook Trout population, as identified in 2012 lake management plan (LMP), are to maintain a minimum gill net catch of 4.0 fish/set, with at least two catchable (lengths over 10 inches) year classes present. This targeted survey was the first evaluation of the Brook Trout population for the management plan cycle. Due to Surber Lakes small size, light stocking quota, and apparent moderate-high fishing pressure, a targeted survey using short-term (30-minute) gill net sets was completed to minimize sampling mortality of the population. This is a relatively new technique for sampling stream trout lakes in this area but has proven useful for evaluating population size structure and stocking success for lakes deemed sensitive to sampling mortality. This targeted survey incorporated 9 short-term (30-minute) gill net sets made over a single day of sampling and spread throughout the lake. A total of 14 Brook Trout were sampled that ranged from 6.9 to 14.4 inches in length. No aging structures were collected during the survey; however, based on past Brook Trout age-and-growth data for the lake and the lengths of fish captured, the sample appeared to incorporate a mix of age-1 through age-3 fish, with most of the sampled fish likely being age-2 fish from the 2020 stocking. Sampling mortality was limited to one 10-inch Brook Trout. No additional fish species were sampled in 2022. While we cannot evaluate the abundance goal for the Brook Trout population from this targeted survey, these results do suggest that the goal of maintaining two catchable year classes in Surber Lake was met in 2022. Additional evaluation of the short-term gill net method is needed to determine if catch results are useful indicators of population abundance.

Minnesota DNR survey narrative, September 19, 2022.

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