Wood Lake (Yellow Medicine County)

Yellow Medicine County, Minnesota - DNR stocking history, depth and survey data

Minnesota · Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) · DOW 87003000

DNR records show 19 stocking entries at Wood Lake (Yellow Medicine County) since 2016, most recently walleye fry in 2025 (153,405 fish).

• Wood Lake (Yellow Medicine County) has 19 DNR stocking records across 7 years (2016-2025): walleye (15), yellow perch (2), black crappie (1), bluegill sunfish (1).
• The most-stocked species by count is walleye: 1,637,639 fish on record.
• Maximum depth 9 ft; surface area 485 acres, 485 littoral acres, 5.1 miles of shoreline, per the DNR lake survey.
• Average water clarity (Secchi depth) 2.1 ft.
• Fish species DNR lists here: bigmouth buffalo, black bullhead, black crappie, bluegill, channel catfish, common carp, freshwater drum, hybrid sunfish, orangespotted sunfish, walleye, yellow perch.
• 1 public access on the DNR list.
• Most recent DNR fish survey: September 8, 2025 (targeted survey).
• Yellow Medicine County, nearest town Wood Lake; DNR lake number (DOW) 87003000.

Depth map

Bathymetric contours from the Minnesota DNR lake survey; 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.

A targeted fall night electrofishing survey was conducted on Wood during September 8, 2025 to evaluate young of year "YOY" (fingerling sized) Walleye numbers due to a fry stocking. A targeted survey is generally used for sampling a specific kind of fish or time of year (i.e. spawning season, fall season, etc.) unlike a standard survey which samples a wider range of fish species during the summer months using standard methodology (i.e. standard time of year, set sampling stations, taking water clarity readings and oxygen/temperature profiles, etc.) and gears (i.e. lake survey gillnets, trapnets, and spring electrofishing for Largemouth Bass). Three stations were sampled for a total of 30 minutes. The water temperature was 74.5 F. Water clarity was fair (1 foot). We observed abundant numbers of Black Bullhead and YOY Freshwater Drum; moderate numbers of small Black Crappie and Yellow Perch; low numbers of Bigmouth Buffalo and Common Carp. Wood is a moderate sized (485 acres), shallow (9 feet maximum depth), aerated, and productive lake located in Yellow Medicine County. Wood Lake outlets into Wood Lake Creek via Judicial Ditch #10 and eventually flows into the Minnesota River. A fish barrier has generally prevented fish from moving into Wood Lake from the Minnesota River except during high water or barrier failures. Significant winterkills occurred during the 1996-1997, 2000-2001 and 2021-2022 winters due to heavy snow accumulation and/or problems with the aeration system. Early winter oxygen levels usually drop dramatically in Wood Lake compared to other nearby lakes (i.e., Lady Slipper, School Grove, Cottonwood and Tyson). Adequate oxygen levels (> 3 ppm) were maintained by the aeration system during the 2022-2023 winter which had extreme snow events. The heavy-duty tri-float Aire-O2 aeration system was moved to a harder substrate bottom about 150 yards east of the previous site and away from the access in 2022. No winterkill occurred in Wood or nearby Tyson unlike many other southern Minnesota lakes during the 2022-2023 winter. Winter oxygen levels were adequate during the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 winters due to mild winter conditions. The aeration system was not operated during the 2025-26 mild winter due to high oxygen levels (>20 ppm). Walleye natural reproduction in Wood is generally infrequent and insignificant based on previous surveys. Walleye fry (102,000 to 433,000 fish) have been stocked recently into Wood during 2016, 2018, 2021-2025. Approximately 153,405 Walleye fry were stocked in 2025. Walleye fingerlings were stocked into Wood during…

Minnesota DNR survey narrative, September 8, 2025.

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