Murphy Lake

How big is Murphy Lake?

How deep is Murphy Lake?

What kind of fish can you catch in Murphy Lake?

What are the closest cities to Murphy Lake?

Are there boat launches on Murphy Lake?

Are there places to eat and drink near Murphy Lake?

Murphy Lake is a 310-acre mesotrophic (moderately fertile) lake located in north central Otter Tail County approximately 2.5 miles east of the city Frazee. An inlet from Silver Lake is located on the south shoreline and consists of a non-navigable channel under county road 118. Murphy Lake's outlet is located on the northwest shoreline and flows into Fischer Lake. Murphy Lake is part of the Otter Tail River watershed and is composed primarily of marshland and hardwood lots interspersed with agricultural land. Murphy Lake has a maximum depth of 30 feet; 53% of the surface acreage is less than 15 feet deep. A DNR owned public water access is located on the south shoreline directly east of the inlet. Past secchi disk readings, a measurement of water clarity, have ranged from 3.5 to 6.0 feet. Murphy Lake is included in lake class 31 of the MNDNR lake classification scheme. Other lakes in the Fergus Falls management area that are in lake class 31 include: Annie Battle, Boedigheimer, Devils, Donald, Hoot, Johnson, Middle, Molly Stark, Pebble, Pleasant, Portage, Silver, East Twin, Walker, and Wall.
The majority of the shoreline is undeveloped. Shoreline substrates consist primarily of muck with some sand mixed in. The most abundant type of submerged aquatic plant is chara, a plant that can grow up to a foot or more off the bottom. Emergent aquatic plants such as bulrush, cattail, and wild rice are present in areas throughout the basin. These emergent plants provide valuable fish and wildlife habitat, and are critical for maintaining good water quality. They protect shorelines and lake bottoms, and can actually absorb and break down polluting chemicals. Emergent plants provide spawning areas for fish such as northern pike, largemouth bass, and panfish. They also serve as important nursery areas for all species of fish. Because of their ecological value, emergent plants may not be removed without a DNR permit.
Murphy Lake is a classic bass/panfish lake, where there is little to no natural walleye reproduction occurring. Walleye fry stocked on three-year basis have supplemented natural reproduction to maintain the walleye population. The mean length and weight of walleye sampled by gill nets in 2007 was 20.4 inches and 2.0 pounds.
At times Murphy Lake can provide some excellent bluegill fishing. Bluegills are abundant and in past surveys showed good size structure. Even though, only 23% of the bluegills sampled during the 2007 assessment were 7.0 inches or greater, the 2001 assessment had 66% of the bluegills seven inches or greater.
The northern pike abundance has greatly increased while the size structure has slowly improved from past surveys. Pike sampled by gill nets ranged in length from 14.7 to 31.9 inches with a mean length at capture of 20.7 inches. Twelve percent of the northern pike sampled by gill nets were 24 inches or greater. The increase in northern pike abundance appears to be impacting the yellow perch population, as there was only two yellow perch sampled by the gill nets.
Anglers can maintain the quality of angling by practicing selective harvest. Selective harvest encourages the release of medium to large-size fish while allowing the harvest of more abundant smaller fish for table fare. Releasing the medium to large fish will ensure that the lake will have enough spawning age fish on an annual basis and will provide anglers with more opportunities to catch large fish in the future.

What is the average air temp for Murphy Lake?

Are there any state parks near Murphy Lake?