Rush Island Lake

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Rush Island Lake is a 296 acre lake located 4 miles west of Spring Lake, MN. The lake is lightly developed and has a good public access on the south shore. The lake is connected to Birdseye Lake and then to Sand Lake by Rush Island Creek. Rush Island Lake is in ecological lake class 31. Other area lakes in this class include Little Bowstring, Cedar and Little Turtle Lakes.

The northern pike gill-net catch was above the expected range at 11.5/net. Catch rates have varied from 1.9 to 16.7/net in previous assessments. Catches have exceeded the lake class third quartile in four of the past five surveys. Size structure was fairly poor; gill-net sampled pike ranged from 17.5 to 27.6 inches, with a mean length of 21.8 inches. Ages 2-7 were identified from scale samples. Growth was similar to the statewide average with pike reaching 23.3 inches at age 4.

The walleye gill-net catch was within the expected range, but down from the previous assessment at 1.8/net. Catch rates have varied from 0.2 to 8.2/net in previous surveys. Size structure was modest and no preferred-length (20 inches and over) fish were captured. Sampled walleye ranged from 13.8 to 19.9 inches with a mean length of 17.3 inches. Ages 4, 5 and 7 were identified from scale samples, with 9 of 11 fish (82%) corresponding to years of fingerling stocking. Growth was similar to the statewide average with walleye reaching 14.0 inches at age four. The lack of preferred-length walleye and northern pike in the test-nets may be an indication of high angler harvest.

The yellow perch gill-net catch was above the lake class expected range at 101.7/net, but similar to the previous assessment and the long-term average for the lake. Size structure was poor; sampled perch ranged from 5.2 to 9.2 inches, with a mean length of 6.8 inches. Only 3% of perch exceeded 8 inches.

The bluegill trap-net catch rate was within the expected range at 7.1/net. Size structure was poor; sampled fish ranged from 2.0 to 8.4 inches with a mean length of 5.4 inches. Only 5% of bluegill exceeded 8 inches. Bluegill catch rates did not exceed the lake class first quartile until the two most recent assessments. Bluegill were not aged in this assessment, but historical information suggests bluegill growth and size structure was better in surveys prior to 1990.

The gill-net catch rate for tullibee was above the expected range at 7.0/net. Catch rates in previous assessments have varied considerably, from 0.2 to 8.0/net. Sampled tullibee ranged from 7.5 to 17.9 inches with a mean length of 11.9 inches.

Other species sampled in test-nets included black and yellow bullhead, bowfin, hybrid sunfish, largemouth bass, pumpkinseed sunfish, rock bass and white sucker.

As part of a statewide IBI (index of biotic integrity) project, back-pack electrofishing and shoreline seining was used to sample nearshore fishes not normally captured in traditional test-nets. Additional fish sampled with IBI gears included Iowa darter, Johnny darter, black crappie, blackchin shiner, bluntnose minnow, central mudminnow, creek chub, golden shiner and tadpole madtom.

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