Bear Lake

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What kind of fish can you catch in Bear Lake?

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Are there boat launches on Bear Lake?

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Bear Lake in Freeborn County is a 1,536 acre lake north of the city of Emmons. Bear Lake is currently a wildlife management lake, one of 44 lakes statewide designated as such. A DNR-owned public access is located on northeast end of the lake.

Bear Lake was surveyed the week of July 30th, 2009, to monitor the fish community. Black bullheads were the most abundant fish sampled at 89 per gill net and 38 per trap net lift. Bullhead in both gears were small, ranging between 4.5 and 10.5 inches and averaging five to a pound. Bear Lake's poor water quality is a good fit for the greatly tolerant black bullhead.

Local interest in a recreational fishery stems from catches of northern pike. Two inlets on the north end of the lake are channelized and are the deepest points on the lake. Both sites are the best locations for darkhouse spearing and winter and summer angling. Northern pike averaged 7 fish per gill net, approaching the upper quartile for class 43 lakes. Average fish weight was 1.5 pounds. Trap netted pike were larger; average fish weight was 3.4 pounds. Local anglers report historical catches of larger fish.

Bear Lake's wider connection to the Winnebago River and immediate connection to Lime Creek may be the source of the lake's crappie populations. Resident black and white crappie populations include a handful of year classes, implying not only survival in Bear Lake's shallow waters, but reproduction as well. Black crappie were not well sampled in gillnets; black crappie in trap nets were captured at a rate of 9 fish per lift. Trap netted black crappies ranged between 4.5 to 10.9 inches, with an average of 6.8 inches. White crappie also were not well sampled in gillnet. Trap netted white crappie averaged 5 fish per lift. White crappies in trapnets ranged between 5.7 and 11.4 inches, with an average of 7.6 inches.

Common carp are prolific in Bear Lake; they may be underrepresented in this survey because of their ability to break mesh in the gill net and escape. Despite losing some fish, carp exceeded the upper quartile for abundance, averaging 24 fish per gill net lift. Carp were large, averaging 4.5 pounds per fish, again exceeding the upper quartile for average fish weight. While operating the boat on Bear Lake, carp were observed jumping in the outboard motor propeller wash.

Young bigmouth buffalo were abundant at 26 fish per gill net lift. Buffalo ranged from 8 to 11 inches. No large buffalo were caught in the gill nets, but a 20 inch fish was caught in a trap net.

Yellow perch averaged 38 fish per gill net lift. Gill net perch fit into a narrow stretch of length groupings, ranging from 5.2 to 8.1 inches. Also sampled were orange-spotted sunfish, white sucker, and golden shiner.

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Are there any state parks near Bear Lake?