Lake Minnetonka anglers rush to save thousands of game fish

Story from KSTP. And Kudos to these folks!

http://www.kstp.com/minnesota-news/lake-minnetonka-anglers-rush-to-save-thousands-of-game-fish-january-13-2021/5976857/?cat=12196

(Video at the link above)

Lake Minnetonka anglers rush to save thousands of game fish

Jay Kolls
Updated: January 13, 2021 06:49 PM
Created: January 13, 2021 04:30 PM

With ice covering a good portion of Minnehaha Creek, thousands of game fish have moved into a small pool of open water right next to the Gray’s Bay Dam that leads to Lake Minnetonka, which is shut down every winter and prevents the fish from getting into the lake where oxygen levels are higher.

Ken Martinson is a Lake Minnetonka angler who told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS he and about five other anglers have been working to save as many fish as possible over the past two days.

“We’re using nets to pull them out of the creek and then we’ve cut out holes on the other side of the dam on Lake Minnetonka where we are putting the fish into the lake,” Martinson said. “We have probably pulled out 2,000 fish, including panfish, bass, northerns and even a couple big muskies.”

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources told KSTP this is a natural process every year and some fish will die as oxygen levels go down with the ice cover. The DNR added that winter fish rescues are not generally done as nature takes its course.

Getting trapped by a dam doesn’t really seem to be ‘nature taking its course.’

slough wrote:

Getting trapped by a dam doesn’t really seem to be ‘nature taking its course.’

X2 !

-J.

A scary thought that common sense could actually take place in todays world. Kudo’s to the anglers and I hope the DNR goes on a coffee break until these guys are done.

slough wrote:

Getting trapped by a dam doesn’t really seem to be ‘nature taking its course.’

Agreed.
I can’t believe the DNR said that. What a joke.

The DNR never fails to show it’s years of biological prowess. Time after time regular Joe’s prove that common sense and elbow grease goes a long ways.

Can someone educate me on what the purpose of a dam right there would be?? Especially if they only close it during the winter? why not just leave the dam open, problem solved?

luttes wrote:

Can someone educate me on what the purpose of a dam right there would be??

I believe that it is to regulate water flow into Minnehaha Creek, and may also serve a purpose to help regulate water levels in Lake Minnetonka to a certain extent.

Minnehaha Creek flows basically flows through residential neighborhoods after it leaves Lake Minnetonka so regulating flow helps with flood control.

So in essence it does the same thing every other dam does: help regulate water flow.

luttes wrote:

Can someone educate me on what the purpose of a dam right there would be?? Especially if they only close it during the winter? why not just leave the dam open, problem solved?

My Guess is the Dam there is to control the creek that run through many RICH peoples back yards. They want it there until it starts to overflow into their backyards. I’m sure they have plenty of say so as to when it open and when its closed. More say so than the DNR for sure

fishthumper wrote:

They want it there until it starts to overflow into their backyards.

Sometimes it still flows into their back yards. That’s the risk you take living in a flood plain. I can recall in June 2014 when we received 17 inches of rain it was a raging river rather than a slow moving creek.

It’s a dam protecting wealthy landowners’ properties near the watershed at the expense of natural resources.

For the fish that don’t make it, they could also be released…but onto the lawns of those property owners as a great smelling fertilizer versus the bags of polluting crap they throw on every summer.

The Haterade is flowing today!

(no, I don’t live there or have any vested interest)

I’m not one to rip on the MN DNR as they are the experts and I have not had certain bad experiences. But comments like this are Busch League and don’t sit well with me.

-1 for the DNR here +1 for the Minnesota angler

At least the story included no charges for transporting fish from one body of water to another.

Feathers wrote:

Sounds like fishing near this dam might be pretty decent right now.

You might get the ol Stink Eye from a few people….

-J.

The lake association should band together and put an aerator in that section of water. They can be run off solar power and would like save the majority of these fish, but kudos to these sportsmen for taking care of that and what a lame explanation from the DNR. That is pathetic.

Tonka is a pretty big water system, and our natural resource budget isn’t, I want to say drop in the bucket as far the “saved” fish numbers goes.