Wood Lake

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Wood Lake (Marguerite Lake) is a 394-acre lake located northwest of the City of Russell in Lyon County. Wood Lake is managed primarily for Walleye and secondarily for Yellow Perch. Wood Lake was stocked with the Lower Mississippi Strain (LMS) Walleye fry in the spring of 2015, 2016, and 2018 in an effort to get this strain established in additional waterbodies. Wood Lake was selected because it has traditionally supported a good walleye population, has habitat that is conducive to Walleye reproduction, and has historically had sporadic natural reproduction. A survey was conducted the week of July 13, 2020, to monitor fish populations using three gill nets, eight trap nets and three seine hauls.

The 2020 Walleye catch rate was 24.0 per gill net which is the highest catch rate ever observed on Wood Lake, greatly exceeding the previous high of 14.7 per gill net in 2016, and exceeding the expected range of catch rates for similar lakes (2.3 to 18.1 per gill net). Four year classes of Walleye were sampled including fish from 2010, 2015, 2016, and 2018, all of which correspond to stocking events. Age-2 Walleye (2018) comprised 65 percent of aged Walleye and age-5 Walleye comprised 24 percent of aged Walleye. Walleye lengths ranged from 8.6 to 28.9 inches and averaged 11.2 inches. Walleye grow slow in Wood Lake, as mean length at age-2 was 9.9 inches (N=71) and mean length at age-5 was 13.0 inches (N=26). The slow growth of the 2015 year class is likely related to the highly abundant year class that was produced in 2015 (734.5 fingerlings per hour of fall electrofishing). Walleye are abundant in Wood Lake, however, they tend to be small because of poor growth.

Yellow Perch catch rates have ranged from 3.0 per gill net in 1992 to 103.7 per gill net in 2016 and have averaged 43.0 per gill net since 1988. In 2020, Yellow Perch were sampled at a rate of 18.3 per gill net, which is a major decrease from 103.7 per gill net in 2016, but is what we would expect for similar lakes (2.7 to 25.0 per gill net). Young-of-the-year (YOY) Yellow Perch were sampled at a rate of 3.7 per seine haul, indicating that natural reproduction occurred but was limited. Yellow Perch lengths ranged from 5.6 to 12.4 inches and averaged 8.9 inches.

Three seine hauls to assess availability of forage was conducted with a 50 ft. long, 1/8 inch mesh bag seine. Species captured included Johnny Darters (1.3 per haul), YOY Bluegill (42.0 per haul), Common Carp (0.7 per haul), Fathead Minnow (4.7 per haul), YOY Largemouth Bass (1.7 per haul), and YOY Yellow Perch (3.7 per haul). This suggest that food for Walleye may be somewhat limited in Wood Lake.

Black Bullhead abundance continued to be low with only 11 Black Bullhead sampled in the survey. Black Bullhead were large, as lengths ranged from 11.1 to 15.2 inches and averaged 14.2 inches. Common Carp abundance was high at 27.0 per gill net, greater than the long term mean of 3.9 per gill net. Most of the Common Carp sampled were from the year class that averaged around 15.0 inches in length. Other species sampled included Bluegill, Largemouth Bass, and White Sucker.

Are there any state parks near Wood Lake?