Making Minnetonka Better

[Lee Borgersen]

  Westonka Program Aims To Make Minnetonka A Better Walleye Destination


October 31, 2014

 


MOUND (WCCO) – The boating season has pretty much ended on Lake Minnetonka, but to one group of anglers what they did Friday will pay off next summer.

They’re with the Westonka Walleye Program, a private effort to improve walleye fishing close to home.

Friday, on cold and wind swept beaches, volunteers carried nets filled with young walleye down to the water.

It’s part of a privately funded program to supplement state efforts to increase the lake’s walleye numbers.

Our state fish is the target of many anglers – both fun to catch and fabulous to eat.

And now a group of folks out on Minnetonka want to bring the pursuit of walleye a little closer to home.

When you think about Minnetonka, recreation pops to mind. It’s a treasured body of water with a rich history of sailboats and excursions.

But on a cold October day, Johnny Range and friends are out to change that.

“I’m very excited to put in 1,500 pounds of walleye in Lake Minnetonka today,” Range said

Westonka Walleye is a privately funded, volunteer effort to put more walleye fishing into Minnetonka’s recreation.

Aboard a truck with tanks brimming with young fish, nets would come out for volunteers to carry in. And release some 10,000, 8 to 13 inch walleye into the lake’s west end.

“Five-percent of the fish that are in lake come from natural reproduction, 95-percent of the fish are stocked fish. So if we want walleyes in the lake we’ve got to stock them,” Range said.

With a crowd of onlookers, net after net is carried to the water and released.  Roughly $20,000 worth of fish splashing away and spreading out!

It’s a lot more expensive to stock with the larger fish at roughly $2 apiece. But the trade-off is they’ll stand a better chance of surviving than smaller fingerlings.

“Stocking with these 8 to 13 inch fish it’s estimated we will have a 90-95 percent success rate. That means less fish will be eaten by predators,” Range said.

That’s the goal, giving the walleyes a better shot at growing into lunkers. And anglers a better chance of landing one.

Johnny Range says his dream is, “for kids to catch walleye in their own back yard.”

This program supplements the DNR’s fish stocking which largely releases tiny fry and small fingerlings into the state’s lakes.

The effort on behalf on Lake Minnetonka’s stocking was paid for with private donations.

Next April the group which organized the Westonka Walleye Program will hold another banquet to raise additional funding to continue their work.