This lake is dominated by white perch in the five to seven inch size range, which must number in the hundreds of thousands. A survey conducted 1982 also revealed the presence of chain pickerel, largemouth bass, brown bullheads, yellow perch, black crappie, bluegills, pumpkinseeds and golden shiners. The golden shiners, forage fish, appear to be the second most abundant species here. We sampled good-sized bass in the 14 to 20 inch size range, but no young-of-the-year largemouth, pickerel or sunfish were observed. Tiger muskies and northern pike have since been added to the fish species in the reservoir.

Norton Reservoir once enjoyed an excellent reputation for producing large harvests of better than average warm water fish -- particularly chain pickerel, largemouth bass and yellow perch -during both the summer and winter months. The results of the 1982 survey indicated that recruitment and survival of young of all species was difficult due to competition from the overly abundant white perch population. The situation is hopefully improving since the introduction of tiger muskies in 1988 and 1991, and northern pike in 1990. These big predators reach harvestable size (28 inches) in less than five years. Meanwhile, fishermen can still find good bass, pickerel and panfish action at the reservoir.