Silver Lake

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What kind of fish can you catch in Silver Lake?

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Are there boat launches on Silver Lake?

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Silver Lake is a 247-acre eutrophic (fertile) lake located in north central Otter Tail County approximately 2.5 miles east of the city Frazee. Silver Lake outlets into Murphy Lake by a non-navigable channel under county road 118. Silver Lake is part of the Otter Tail River watershed and the immediate watershed is composed primarily of marshland and hardwood lots interspersed with agricultural land. Silver Lake has a maximum depth of 34 feet; however 91% of the surface acreage is less than 15 feet deep. Shoal water substrates consist of sand and muck. The lake is sparsely developed. A DNR owned public water access is located on the north shoreline directly east of the outlet. The secchi disk reading in this survey was 5.5 feet. Previous secchi disk readings have ranged from 2.6 to 4.7 feet.
Silver Lake is subject to periodic partial winterkill. Past partial winterkills have occurred during the winters of 1988-1989, 1992-1993, and 1996-1997. Silver Lake is included in lake class 38 of the MNDNR lake classification scheme. Other lakes in the Fergus Falls management area that are in lake class 38 include: Buchanan, Elbow, Prairie, Round, and Sand.
Large areas of hardstem bulrush and common cattail are present around the lake. Emergent aquatic plants such as bulrush and cattail 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.
Silver Lake is a classic bass/panfish lake, where there is little to no natural walleye reproduction occurring. Past walleye fry stockings weren't reaching the management goals so the current lake management plan calls for walleye fry stockings only after a partial winterkill occurs. The walleyes that were sampled during the 2007 assessment correspond to years that Murphy Lake was stocked with fry.
At times Silver Lake can provide some excellent bluegill fishing. Bluegills are abundant and in past surveys showed good size structure. Even though only 10% of the bluegills sampled during the 2007 assessment were 7.0 inches or greater, a special spring trap net assessment in 2001 had 33% of the bluegill sample 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 form 13.2 to 28.8 inches with a mean length at capture of 19.4 inches. This was the first survey where northern pike over 24 inches were sampled. Seven percent of the northern pike sampled were 24 inches or greater. The increase in northern pike abundance appears to have had an impact on the yellow perch population, as this was the first survey where a yellow perch was not sampled by a gill net.
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.

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