Sunset Creek Northern Pike Spawning Area

[Edited from an article by Nan Lundblad in the May 2005 issue of The Vermilion Sportsman]

Each year the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources - Fisheries and the Sportsmen's Club of Lake Vermilion operate the Sunset Creek Northern Pike Spawning Area on the west end of Lake Vermilion. Located near the public landing in Head-O-Lakes Bay, the Sunset Creek is blocked off with stop logs to create a rearing pond for northern pike.

A fish trap is placed in the creek in early April when the northerns start their spawning run. Club volunteers (Dale Lundblad pictured) check the trap twice a day and release the northerns in the rearing pond to spawn. Twenty females and 40 males are transferred to the pond - the calculated number of fish the pond will support. After this number is met, the trap is removed by the DNR.

After the adult fish have spawned, they return to the lake over the dam. Then sometime in the first part of June, DNR Fisheries contacts club volunteer Rick Pearson and he begins removing the stop logs, one each day until the pond is lowered. Rick reports he props up one end of the log in the morning and lets the water flow through, then later comes back to remove the stop log. If he's quiet when he returns, he can sometimes see a large mass of northern fry suddenly go over the dam when they sense the current. The fry are three to four inches long by then and as Rick says, "Half of that is head!"

The purpose of the rearing pond is to give the northern fry a chance to grow, giving them a better survival rate once they return to the lake. The DNR estimates the Sunset Creek Rearing Pond produces 10,000 to 15,000 fry each year.

For More Information or to Volunteer  

For more information on the northern pike rearing pond activities or to volunteer, please contact activity coordinators Gary or Alberta Whitenack [contact info].