Wood

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 and Northern Pike. Lower Mississippi Strain (LMS) Walleye were stocked in Wood Lake in 2015, 2016, 2018, 2021, 2022, and 2024. Walleye from some of the year classes could be sexually mature with potential to reproduce. 2025 was a non-stocked year, so a daytime electrofishing survey was conducted on October 8, 2025 to determine if natural reproduction occurred. Zero age-0 Walleye were captured in 2025, indicating that natural reproduction was limited or did not occur. Age-1 Walleye were captured at a rate 24.0 per hour. Age-1 Walleye ranged in length from 8.3 to 9.6 inches and averaged 8.9 inches. It is unlikely that a year class was produced in 2025.

Wood Lake (Marguerite Lake) is a 394-acre, class 43 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, 2018, 2021, 2022, and 2024 to get this strain established in additional waterbodies. Starting in 2022, Wood will be stocked every other year with LMS Walleye fry. Given that Wood Lake is positioned towards the top of the watershed, the fishery can be described as somewhat simplistic and not very diverse. Wood Lake was selected because it has traditionally supported a good walleye population, has habitat that is conducive to Walleye reproduction, historically had sporadic natural reproduction, and is positioned towards the top of the watershed. A survey was conducted the week of June 30, 2024, to monitor fish populations using three gill nets and eight trap nets. This relatively simplistic Wood Lake fishery consisted of six species of fish. The 2024 Walleye catch rate was 12.3 per gill net which is down from the last survey. With that said, the 2024 catch rate was higher than the long-term average (10.1 fish/gill net). Four year classes of Walleye were sampled including fish from 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2022, all of which correspond to stocking events except 2019. Most of the fish (78%) came from the 2022 year class of fish and therefore is somewhat dominated by smaller fish at the time of the survey. Walleye lengths ranged from 9.5 to 16.7 inches and averaged 11.4 inches. Based on the last couple of surveys, Walleye continue to grow slow in Wood Lake but Yellow Perch numbers appear to rebounding which will help the Walleye population structure. 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 41.5 per gill net since 1988. In 2024, Yellow Perch were sampled at a rate of 28.0 per gill net, which is an increase from the 2020 survey. In fact the catch rate exceeded the 75% quartile (25.0 fish/gill net) which is a good sign for the lake's productivity. In addition to the rebound in numbers, total lengths of Yellow Perch in gill nets ranged from 5.9 to 12.7 inches and had a mean length of 9.4 inches. Another good sign of the lake's productivity was Yellow Perch were somewhat robust in condition which means they are foraging and finding bait fish. The Yellow Perch population is encouraging. Black Bullhead numbers continued to be low with only 1 Black Bullhead sampled during the entire survey. Additionally, only 1 White Sucker was sampled between gill nets and trap nets. Common Carp relative abundance was low considering only 1 fish per gill net was caught. However, Common Carp trap net catch rate averaged 2.5 per net. Either way both gears point to a lower to average abundance of Common Carp. Bluegill was the only other species sampled during the survey and was only 1 fish in a trap net.

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.

Based on Minnesota DNR survey data, anglers target Yellow Perch, Northern Pike, Bluegill, Walleye, and Green Sunfish in Wood. See the full species list above for catch rates, size structure, and quality scores.

Minnesota DNR records list public access for Wood. Check the DNR LakeFinder page for the launch type and directions before you go.

Wood has a maximum depth of 14 feet, per Minnesota DNR data.

The most recent Minnesota DNR survey data for the main sport fish in Wood is from 2024.

No invasive species are on record for Wood in Minnesota DNR data. Always clean, drain, and dry your equipment to help keep it that way.