Murphy

Murphy Lake is a 310-acre mesotrophic (moderately fertile) lake located in north central Otter Tail County approximately 2.5 miles east of the city Frazee. An inlet from Silver Lake is located on the south shoreline and consists of a non-navigable channel under county road 118. Murphy Lake's outlet is located on the northwest shoreline and flows into Fischer Lake. Murphy Lake is part of the Otter Tail River watershed and is composed primarily of marshland and hardwood lots interspersed with agricultural land. Murphy Lake has a maximum depth of 30 feet; 53% of the surface acreage is less than 15 feet deep. A DNR owned public water access is located on the south shoreline directly east of the inlet. Past secchi disk readings, a measurement of water clarity, have ranged from 3.5 to 6.0 feet. Murphy Lake is included in lake class 31 of the MNDNR lake classification scheme. Other lakes in the Fergus Falls management area that are in lake class 31 include: Annie Battle, Boedigheimer, Devils, Donald, Hoot, Johnson, Middle, Molly Stark, Pebble, Pleasant, Portage, Silver, East Twin, Walker, and Wall. The majority of the shoreline is undeveloped. Shoreline substrates consist primarily of muck with some sand mixed in. The most abundant type of submerged aquatic plant is chara, a plant that can grow up to a foot or more off the bottom. Emergent aquatic plants such as bulrush, cattail, and wild rice are present in areas throughout the basin. These emergent plants 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. Murphy Lake is a classic bass/panfish lake, where there is little to no natural walleye reproduction occurring. Walleye fry stocked on three-year basis have supplemented natural reproduction to maintain the walleye population. The mean length and weight of walleye sampled by gill nets in 2007 was 20.4 inches and 2.0 pounds. At times Murphy Lake can provide some excellent bluegill fishing. Bluegills are abundant and in past surveys showed good size structure. Even though, only 23% of the bluegills sampled during the 2007 assessment were 7.0 inches or greater, the 2001 assessment had 66% of the bluegills 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 from 14.7 to 31.9 inches with a mean length at capture of 20.7 inches. Twelve percent of the northern pike sampled by gill nets were 24 inches or greater. The increase in northern pike abundance appears to be impacting the yellow perch population, as there was only two yellow perch sampled by the gill nets. 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.

Murphy Lake is a 310-acre, mesotrophic (moderately fertile) lake located in north-central Otter Tail County. The maximum depth is 30 feet and 53% of the lake is 15 feet or less in depth. The shoreline length is 2.6 miles and the secchi disk reading for this survey was 5.5 feet. Secchi disk readings, a measurement of water clarity, have ranged from 3.5 to 6.0 feet in previous surveys. A DNR-owned public access is located on the southeast shoreline. The majority of the shoreline is undeveloped. Shoreline substrates consist primarily of muck with some sand mixed in. The most abundant type of submerged aquatic plant is chara, a plant that can grow up to a foot or more off the bottom. Emergent plants such as hardstem bulrush, cattail, and wild rice are present in areas throughout the basin. These emergent plants provide valuable fish and wildlife habitat and are critical for maintaining good water quality. They protect shorelines and lake bottoms from erosion and can actually absorb and breakdown polluting chemicals. Emergent plants provide spawning habitat for fish species such as northern pike, largemouth bass and panfish. They also serve as important nursery areas for all species of fish. Because of their ecological importance, emergent plants may not be removed without a DNR permit. Murphy Lake contains good populations of walleye, northern pike, and bluegill. There is adequate spawning habitat available for these species, thus, their abundance has remained fairly stable since the 1983 initial survey. Walleye fry are stocked every three years to supplement walleye natural reproduction. Walleye ranged in length from 12.0 to 21.5 inches with an average length and weight of 15.7 inches and 1.3 pounds. Northern pike ranged in length from 12.3 to 30.8 inches with an average length and weight of 17.9 inches and 1.4 pounds. Sixteen percent of the bluegills were at least 7.0 inches in length. Tullibee, a fish species known to inhabit deeper, cooler lakes, is present in Murphy Lake. Anglers can maintain or improve the quality of fishing for all species of fish by practicing selective harvest. Selective harvest encourages the release of medium to large-size fish while allowing the harvest of the more abundant small fish to eat. Releasing medium to large size fish will ensure that the lake will have enough spawning age fish and will provide anglers with opportunities to catch more large fish in the future.

Black bullhead abundance was well above the area median at 31.5 per gill net. Tullibee abundance increased from 1.0 per gill net in the 1983 survey to 6.5 per net. Northern pike abundance declined from 8.0 per gill net in 1983 to 3.5 per net. Northern pike averaged 1.6 lbs. and ranged in age from II+ to IV+. Bluegill abundance increased from 19.0 per trap net in 1983 to 34.2 per net, which is slightly higher than the area median. Bluegills greater than 7.0 inches total length composed 56% of the sample. Bluegills exhibit good growth rates. Black crappie abundance declined from 16.7 per trap net in 1983 to 0.5 per net. In 1983, walleye abundance was 2.0 per gillnet lift; however, walleyes were not represented in the gill net sample during this survey.

Based on Minnesota DNR survey data, anglers target Northern Pike, Walleye, Largemouth Bass, Bluegill, and Hybrid Sunfish in Murphy. See the full species list above for catch rates, size structure, and quality scores.

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

Murphy has a maximum depth of 30 feet, per Minnesota DNR data.

The most recent Minnesota DNR survey data for the main sport fish in Murphy is from 2007. Surveys this old should be treated with some caution — fish populations change over time.

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