SandPit

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Sandpit Lake is located within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) within the Superior National Forest and is a non-motorized lake. It is approximately 10 miles northeast of Ely. There are three portage accesses to the lake consisting of an 80 rod portage from Mudro Lake, a 130 rod portage from Tin Can Mike Lake, and a 20 rod portage from the Range River. Sandpit has no major inlets and only one moderately sized outlet which flows a short distance to the Range River. Sandpit is 61 acres with a maximum depth of 53 feet and clear water. Most of the shoreline is forested with high hills on the north and south sides. Bog fringe exists in the bay where the outlet is. One campsite is located on the north shore. On August 1, 2016 Sandpit Lake was thermally stratified with a surface temperature of 77 F and a bottom temperature of 42 F. Oxygen levels were adequate for fish to a depth of 37 feet where the water temperature was 43 F. Lake bottom substrates along the shoreline of Sandpit consist of boulder, rubble, and gravel with muck in some of the vegetated bays. Aquatic plants are confined mostly to the shallow bays and grow to a depth of 8 feet. This population assessment consisted of four gillnet sets. Trap nets were not used because of the difficult access. Seven other previous assessment dating back to 1974 were conducted on Sandpit. The overall gillnet catch rate for all fish combined was 12.3 fish/net, which is average compared to other surveys from Sandpit Lake. Fish species sampled in 2016 were northern pike, white sucker, rock bass, smallmouth bass, walleye, bluegill, and yellow perch. The northern pike gillnet catch was 8.5 fish/net which was very good compared to other similar lakes in the state and the highest catch rate on record for the lake. The average weight was 3 pounds which was better than average compared to other similar lakes. Lengths ranged from 19 to 31 inches with an average of 23 inches. Two smallmouth bass were sampled which is an average catch using four gill nets on Sandpit Lake. Each fish was 14.5 and 16.0 inches long. Ages were four and six years old. One walleye was sampled in a gill net for a catch rate of 0.3 fish/net. This is on par with the previous surveys of Sandpit. Of the seven previous surveys, walleye were captured in five, and never more than 1 fish/net. The 2016 fish was 20 inches long and five years old. Sandpit was stocked with walleye fingerlings in 1974 and fry in 1975, 1978 and 1979. A walleye was captured in the initial survey in 1974 so they were present in the lake prior to our first record of stocking. The white sucker gillnet catch was 1.8 fish/net which was below average compared to other similar lakes but higher than normal for Sandpit. The average weight was around a half a pound per fish. Lengths ranged from 7 to 14 inches with an average of 10 inches. The gill nets only sampled one small bluegill but many were observed hanging around in the shallows, all less than five inches. One largemouth, approximately 8 inches long and several young of the year largemouth were also witnessed hanging in the shallows. Three rock bass and one yellow perch were the only other fish sampled in gill nets.

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