Wolf Lake

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What kind of fish can you catch in Wolf Lake?

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Wolf Lake is a 289 acre lake located eight miles west of Ely. It is accessed by a shallow ramp on the south side of the lake from an access road off of Highway 169. This Ecological Lake Class 5 lake has a maximum depth of 28 feet and brown bog-stained water.

Wolf was thermally stratified on July 29, 2019 with a surface temperature of 73 F and a bottom temperature of 55 F. Oxygen levels were adequate for gamefish to a depth of 15.0 feet where the temperature was 70 F. There is one inlet, a drainage on the south side of the lake, and one outlet which drains out of the northeast corner to the Burntside River and then to Shagawa Lake. Lake bottom substrates along the shoreline are mostly boulder, with some areas of gravel, sand, and muck in some of the bays. Aquatic vegetation grows to a depth of around 8.0 feet. Only a small section of shoreline on the north shore and the outlet bay is held in public ownership by the state. The remainder of the lake shore is privately owned.

The overall gillnet catch rate for all fish combined was 34.0 fish/net which was the second highest on record for the lake. Yield was 42.3 lbs/net which was the highest on record. Fish species sampled were yellow perch, black crappie, northern pike, walleye, bluegill, smallmouth bass, white sucker, and largemouth bass. Trap nets catch was 43.0 fish/net which was the highest on record for the lake. Yield was 14.1 lbs/net which was also the highest on record. Fish species sampled in trap nets were mostly bluegill and northern pike. No additional species were sampled in trap nets that weren't also captured in gill nets.

Walleye fry are currently stocked in Wolf Lake every other year. The 2019 walleye gillnet catch rate was 5.7 fish/net, which was above average compared to other similar lakes and better than most past surveys on Wolf Lake. Walleye lengths ranged from 8 to nearly 26 inches with an average of nearly 17 inches which was the highest on record for all surveys. Growth rates were good compared to other walleye lakes in the area with the average fish reaching 17 inches by age-5. Ages ranged from 1 to 16 with no exceptionally strong year classes. Just over 88% of the 2019 catch came from stocked year classes. This does not mean all of these fish were stocked as there is no way to account for the naturally produced fish that also exist within those stocked year classes.

Thirty-five northern pike were sampled in gill nets for a catch rate of 5.8 fish/net which was slightly above average compared to past surveys on Wolf and quite good when compared to other similar lakes. Lengths ranged from 18 to just over 33 inches with an average of 25 inches. The average weight was nearly 4 pounds.

Electrofishing was used for the first time on Wolf Lake for largemouth and smallmouth bass sampling. On the night of June 13th, four electrofishing stations were sampled with each station being fished for 20 minutes. Combining both species, the catch rate was 68.3 bass/hour.

Sixty largemouth bass were captured for a catch rate of 45.0 largemouth/hour. This was very good compared to other largemouth lakes in the area. Lengths ranged from just over 2 to nearly 19 inches with an average of nearly 12 inches. Growth was similar to other area largemouth lakes with the average fish taking 4 years to grow to 10 inches.

Thirty-one smallmouth were captured while electrofishing for a catch rate of 23.3 smallmouth/hour. This was above average compared to other area smallmouth lakes. Lengths ranged from 5 to nearly 20 inches with an average of 9 inches. Growth was slower than what was shown by largemouth with the average fish reaching nearly 8 inches by age-4.

Nine black crappie were sampled in trap nets for a catch rate of 1.0 fish/net which was below average compared to other similar lakes, however the gillnet catch of crappie was very good. This was only the second survey to capture crappie in Wolf Lake, the first sample came in 2014. Fish averaged nearly 8 inches however some over 13 inches were sampled. Ages ranged from 1 to 7 and fish showed very good growth rates. The average crappie took 4 years to reach nearly 9 inches long.

The bluegill trapnet catch was 39.1 fish/net which was very good compared to other similar lakes and the highest on record for Wolf Lake. Bluegill averaged 5.5 inches although fish over 8 inches were also sampled. Ages ranged from 3 to 9 years with strong representation coming from the 2015 year class. Growth was slightly below average with most fish taking 6 years to reach 6 inches long.

Fifty-three yellow perch were sampled in gill nets for a catch rate of 8.8 fish/ net which was above average compared to other similar lakes and right around average for Wolf Lake. Fish were generally small ranging from 5.5 to just over 8 inches with an average of a little over 6 inches. These sizes are comparable to perch from past surveys.

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