High Lake

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What kind of fish can you catch in High Lake?

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Are there places to eat and drink near High Lake?

High Lake is a 274 acre lake located five miles north of Ely. There are two ways to access the lake. The most common access is a 1/4 mile portage from Dry Lake which comes in on the south side of the middle basin of High Lake. The other access is an approximately one mile portage from FR 460 to the northeast side of the western most basin near a major inlet. This inlet which is basically a confined drainage from a series of beaver ponds is the only continuously flowing inlet to High Lake. The lone outlet has a rock sill on the High Lake end before flowing over a rocky bed approximately 1/2 mile down to Dry Lake. The surrounding landscape of High is largely rolling forest land. The maximum depth is 66 feet the lake has clear water. On June 9, 2014 High Lake was thermally stratified with a surface temperature of 67F and a bottom temperature of 41F. Oxygen was adequate for trout to a depth of 50 feet. Lake bottom substrates along the shoreline were dominated by boulder, followed by rubble, sand, and gravel. A survey of aquatic vegetation was done in late July and showed plants to be sparse and only grow to a depth of 3 feet in some of the shallow bays. The lake is very undeveloped with only three private residences on the shore. In 1966 a reclamation project was done on High Lake and various trout species were stocked in the years after. Since 1990, rainbow yearlings, brookie fingerlings, and splake fingerlings have been stocked on a mostly rotating schedule. The gillnet catch of all trout by weight for this assessment was 7.5 pounds/net which is above average when compared to previous surveys. It is also quite good compared to other surveys of stream trout lakes in the Tower area. Note that trout abundance is expressed in terms of biomass (lb/net) rather than number/net to reduce the influence of occasional high catches of just-stocked fingerlings. The catch of splake in this assessment dominated the other two trout species. The catch rate was 6.5 pounds/gill net. Lengths ranged from 7 to 21 inches with an average of 15 inches which is at the lake's historic average. Average weight was 1.6 pounds which is similar to other recent surveys. There were two distinct groupings of lengths for splake, fish that ranged from 7 to 9 inches and fish that ranged from 16 to 21 inches. The group of small fish was likely from the 2013 stocked class while the rest were likely stocked in 2011 or earlier. Ten rainbow trout were sampled in gill nets for a rate of 0.6 pounds/set. Lengths ranged from 10 to 12 inches with an average of 11 inches. Undoubtedly these were ten of the approximately 5,500 yearling fish that were stocked only a month earlier. No other larger rainbows from any other year classes were sampled. Seven brook trout were sampled in the gill nets, their catch rate was 0.4 pounds/net. Lengths ranged from 8 to 12 inches with an average of 9 inches which is smaller than the historic average of 11 inches. The maximum length is on par with the past several assessments but somewhat small compared to assessments prior to 1994. The largest brookie sampled came in 1988 and was nearly 21 inches long. All brook trout sampled are likely Minnesota Wild strain stocked in the fall of 2012. The next closest stocking would have been in 2009. The bluegill trapnet catch was 55.7 fish/net which is way higher than other similar lakes throughout the area. Sizes were also quite impressive ranging from 3 to nearly 10 inches with an average of 6 inches. Over 27% of the catch was 7.5 inches or larger. Ages ranged from 2 to 12 with an exceptional year class in 2007. Growth appears quite good compared to other Tower area lakes. There has always been a substantial white sucker catch on High Lake. The 2014 gill nets sampled them at 19.8 fish/net which is higher than averge. The trap net catch was 10.2 fish/net which is high, but substantially lower than the previous assessment of 55.2 fish/net in 2011. The gillnetted fish had an average length of 9 inches and maximum length of 19 inches. These seem on par with nearly all the previous surveys.

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