In the land of 10,000 lakes, Pelican Lake and Elephant Lake are two of the finest examples of the perfect marriage between recreation and environmental conservation.
Minnesota
lake
resorts have evolved over the years to provide first–class accommodations with minimal impact on natural resources. Both lakes boast excellent conditions for boating and fishing.
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| Pelican
Lake is a 10,945–acre, class 7 lake with 53 islands. Maximum depth is 38 feet, but large areas of very shallow water with abundant aquatic vegetation are present. Bass, panfish, northern pike, and yellow perch dominate the sport-fish community. Special regulations protecting northern pike (32 to 38 inches) and largemouth and smallmouth bass (14 to 20 inches) were enacted to address concerns about declining size of pike and to protect the high–quality bass population.
Many strong year-classes have been reported, which should provide good fishing for several years. In 2001, night electrofishing was used to sample a total of 365 largemouth and smallmouth bass. Largemouth bass were captured at a rate of 52.8 per hour of on-time, which was the highest ever recorded on Pelican Lake. In an attempt to increase sampling of northern pike, ice-out trap netting was also done in 2001. A total of 996 northern pike were captured at a rate of 10.48 fish/set. Length ranged from 7.7 to 36.9 inches and the average was 20.6, up from 18.9 in 1998. Growth and mean weight of walleye was considerably higher than the area average. Yellow perch gill-net abundance has increased with each of the past three investigations and was 26.58 in 2001, over six times greater than the average for this lake type.
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, 2001
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Elephant Lake is a 742–acre lake located adjacent to Pelican Lake. Moderately fertile this lake presents large stands of emergent aquatic vegetation and hard sand shores that provide cover and spawning areas for the sunfish community, dominated by black crappie and smallmouth bass. Walleye, yellow perch and white sucker are also common with lower abundance of northern pike, pumpkinseed and bluegill. The 2001 lake survey found high number of fast growing black crappie with an average length of 9.5 inches with several crappies over 12 inches. Spring electrofishing sampled large numbers of smallmouth bass. The average bass measured 7.5 inches, although a few fish over 14 inches were also measured. Walleye numbers in 2001 were typical of this class of lake. Growth was good with an average walleye measuring 15.8 inches and ranged from 8.9 to 22.2 inches. Northern pike numbers were low, but, with an average length of 27.5 inches, the quality made up for the quantity. High numbers of yellow perch and white sucker provided ample forage for the game fish.
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, 2001
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| Topographic Map |
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For
more
information
on the
lakes
mentioned
above
please
visit
the
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Web site at: http://www.dnr.state.mn.us
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