West Metro Area Fisheries Office

Notices:

Lake Minnetonka Draft Vegetation Mgt Plan: Carsons-St Louis Bays-- Public Input Period

Public input is now being solicited for the draft Vegetion Management Plan for two bays of Lake Minnetonka. Details of the comment opportunity are in a January 19 DNR News Release. The draft Lake Vegetation Management Plan can be viewed here .

Courthouse Lake Trout Stocked For 2012 Winter Season

Courthouse Lake (Chaska) received 2,000 yearling rainbow trout, 108 adult rainbow trout, and 250 adult brown trout for the 2012 winter trout season (January 14-March 31).  Fish left from previous stockings will also be be available for the season in Courthouse Lake, as well as in Christmas Lake (Greenwood-Shorewood).  Providing fish for winter trout season is not DNR assurance of safe ice!  Use extra preparation and caution this warm winter.  No matter how good fishing is, it's not worth risking life or equipment. January 2012 note on conditions: Courthouse Lake ice was thinner in the narrows between the main basin and smaller southwest basin.

See our Local Trout Fishing Page for more details on our trout-fishing management and fishing opportunities.

Note: because of hatchery production cutbacks and poor return, Little Long Lake (Minnetrista) has not been stocked with trout since spring 2009.

Abundant Walleye Fingerlings Boost 2011 Area Lake Stockings

Lakes receiving walleye fingerlings had stocking boosted 3-10% over poundage quotas because of abundant DNR Fisheries production.

Lakes stocked by MN DNR West Metro Fisheries with walleye fingerlings in fall 2011, by county:  Carver-- Lotus, Waconia; Hennepin-- Cedar, Harriet, Independence, Long, Nokomis, Wirth; Scott-- Fish, O'Dowd, Prior, Spring.

Other 2011 Area walleye stockings (size/year class/source in parentheses):  Carver-- Eagle (fry), Virginia (yearlings); Hennepin-- Medicine (frylings), Sarah (private-purchase fingerlings); Scott-- Cedar (fry), McMahon/Carls (private-purchase fingerlings).

Lake Minnetonka Muskie Study-- Please Report Tagged and Fin-Clipped Fish

MN-DNR, Muskies, Inc. Twin Cities Chapter, and Hugh C. Becker Foundation began a project on Lake Minnetonka to evaluate muskellunge (muskie) stocking effectiveness. Since 2009, muskie have been stocked with an individually numbered yellow tag near the dorsal fin. If you catch a tagged muskie that you plan to release, please leave the tag in the fish but record the 6-digit tag number, date caught, lake name, fish species, and fish length via the internet tag-report form or to our office's phone, email, or address (above).  Fall 2011 update:  fingerling and yearling muskie stocked. Only a small portion of these fish were tagged; most are identifiable by a right or left clip of the pelvic fin.  Please report clipped fish as well as tagged ones.   Muskie Study Details

West Metro Fisheries Office Now In Shakopee

Our office has moved to the Blue Lake Business Center on Scott Co. Hwy. 101 (between US Hwy 169 and ValleyFair). We share a field office with two other MN DNR disciplines (Parks & Trails, Wildlife) and Conservation Corps Minnesota-Iowa . No license or registration services are available.  If you plan to visit, we advise you contact us first to plan a visit; because we're a small field-oriented office with a part-time receptionist, drop-in visitors could find their contact person gone or an empty building.