Turnip Lake
Cook County, Minnesota - DNR stocking history, depth and survey data
Minnesota · Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) · DOW 16013200
DNR records show 6 stocking entries at Turnip Lake since 2016, most recently brook trout fingerlings in 2024 (1,800 fish).
- Turnip Lake has 6 DNR stocking records across 6 years (2016-2024): brook trout (5), rainbow trout (1).
- The most-stocked species by count is brook trout: 8,103 fish on record.
- Maximum depth 30 ft; surface area 21 acres, 14 littoral acres, 0.9 miles of shoreline, per the DNR lake survey.
- Average water clarity (Secchi depth) 11.0 ft.
- Fish species DNR lists here: brook trout.
- 1 public access on the DNR list.
- Most recent DNR fish survey: (targeted survey).
- Cook County, nearest town Grand Marais; DNR lake number (DOW) 16013200.
Stocking history
| Year | Species | Size | Number | Pounds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Brook Trout | fingerlings | 1,800 | 38.6 |
| 2022 | Brook Trout | fingerlings | 1,800 | 73.2 |
| 2020 | Brook Trout | fingerlings | 1,800 | 78.8 |
| 2019 | Brook Trout8 | fingerlings | 1,503 | 44.5 |
| 2018 | Brook Trout8 | fingerlings | 1,200 | 25.0 |
| 2016 | Rainbow Trout | fingerlings | 1,200 | 41.4 |
8 fish cooperatively purchased, raised, and/or stocked by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Field note · Minnesota stocks by year, not by truck day: walleye fry go in within weeks of ice-out, fingerlings and yearlings mostly in fall, and stream trout in spring and fall. A row here means the fish went in during that year; DNR adds the year's rows after the fact, so the current year can look empty until winter.
Public accesses
| Type | Owner | Where |
|---|---|---|
| CA | USF | A winter logging road heads south from FR 313I- passing close to east and south shores. A rough trail heads NW 0.25 mi to south shore. - This area was recently declared non-motorized. Road may be posted closed or blocked (it was open in October 2006). |
DNR fish survey, 2018
| Species | Gear | Catch per net | Total catch | Avg lb |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brook trout | Short-term gill nets | 0.17 | 4 | 2.09 |
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.
Turnip Lake is a designated stream trout lake that has been managed as a trophy trout fishery for the last 30 years. Currently it is covered under a special regulation closing the lake to winter angling, and allowing only catch-and-release fishing, with artificial lures and flies only (no live bait) during the open-water stream trout season. Goals for the lake, from the 2018 lake management plan, are to maintain a Brook Trout population with a minimum of two catchable-sized (over 10-inch) year classes, with 10 percent of fish over 12 inches also exceeding 16 inches in length. The 2018 plan reduced the stocking frequency in this lake from annual to every even-numbered year, beginning in 2020. This was the first of three targeted, non-lethal, surveys scheduled in the plan to evaluate the change in stocking. The survey used small (80-ft-long) graduated-mesh monofilament gill nets that were fished for about 30 minutes, then lifted and reset elsewhere. A total of 24 such sets were made in 2018, and most of the fish taken survived their capture and were released alive. Because of a temporary closure of the state's Crystal Springs hatchery, no Brook Trout were available for stocking this lake in 2016 and 2017. As a result, only three-year-old (or older) fish were present in 2018, so we could not expect to see a high catch (gill net catches have usually been dominated by younger fish). We do not know how indicative catches in short-term gill nets are of true trout abundance, and we do not have a local history with this type of netting to give us anything to compare to. We don't know whether two or more year classes were included in the catch because most of the scales collected during the survey were unreadable. The one fish we could age was four years old at a length of 17.2 inches. The size goal from the 2018 plan was met, since all of the fish taken were over 16 inches in length. A 19.2-inch fish taken in this survey was among the largest ever sampled in this lake. Clearly Turnip Lake continues to provide trophy trout fishing potential. No Rainbow Trout were taken in this survey, but that does not mean there was no survival of those fish. We do not know how vulnerable Rainbow Trout will be to short-term gill net sets; but experience gained on Trout Lake suggests they may be as difficult to sample with that gear as they have been with standard nets. Rainbow Trout catches in stream trout lakes in this area have tended to be low, and a catch of zero is not surprising in a lake where only a single year class could be present. Brook Trout stocking resumed in…
Minnesota DNR survey narrative, .
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Stocking rows, depths, accesses and survey figures are Minnesota DNR LakeFinder data as of 2026-09-02. Regulations, slot limits and special rules are on the DNR page linked above, not here.
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