Lake Monona rests at Template:Coord. It measures Template:Convert, has a mean depth of Template:Convert and a maximum depth of Template:Convert. Its volume is approximately Template:Convert and it has Template:Convert of shoreline, about 40% of which is publicly owned. The elevation of the lake is 845', regulated by locks at the mouth of the Yahara River at Lake Mendota. Monona is fed by three tributaries: the Yahara River (from Lake Mendota), Starkweather Creek, and Wingra Creek. Lake Monona is typically frozen for 107 days a year, give or take 10 days depending on the season. Access to the lake is by boat ramp.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation
|CitationClass=web
}}</ref><ref>Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Lake Survey Map: Monona Lake, Dane County.</ref>
Twenty-six-year-old soul singer Otis Redding died when his plane crashed in Lake Monona on December 10, 1967, during a storm en route to a concert in Madison. The pilot, who was Redding's manager, and four out of the five members of the Bar-Kays (then Otis's backup band) who were on the plane, also died, with the sole survivor being trumpeter Ben Cauley.<ref>"Find Plane In Lake Silt". The Capital Times, December 11, 1967, pp. 1, 4.</ref>
