FOCW (Friends Of Chester Woods) meeting

We hope to see all of you at the April 13th, FOCW meeting. 7:00p.m. at the Park office. Tom Eckdahl will be doing a power point presentation on the history of the Chester Woods Park area. This is a newly developed program
and should be quite interesting. Susan Spafford, of the Olmsted County Parks Commission and the Eyota Bike Trail Committee has requested time to present about the proposed bike trail between Rochester and Eyota, which would include Chester Woods Park. We will also be setting plans for FOCW
for the coming year. Hope to see all of you on the 13th. Please RSVP to the park office.
Dennis Tooley
P.S. Feel free to invite any additional persons who might be interested in FOCW and the park.

Mike, what can you tell us about the lake, the fish present, techniques used to fish there, etc. so people have a knowledge of what the lake offers them for fishing there. What is the purpose of FOCW?
Thanks, Bill

Chester Woods is an impoundment created by the Rochester flood control project. The lake contains bluegills, crappies, largemouth bass, and catfish. A wide variety of fishing techniques produce fish. It is a classic bass habitat and provides some of the best bass fishing to be found around Rochester, with fish pushing the 8 lb. class this year. The bluegills are plentiful and many are large. The crappies are less plentiful, but can be very nice size. The largest catfish will probably be pushing the 20 lb. mark this year. There are 2 special regulations: the limit for bluegills is 10 and all bass smaller than 14 inches must be returned to the water immediately. Normal inland waters rules and regulations are in effect for everything else.
You need an Olmsted County park pass to enter the park in order to get to the lake. The lake does not permit gas powered motors, so you will need an electric motor or manual power for your boat or canoe. There are also 3 nice fishing piers to fish from the shore.
FOCW is a group of volunteers who want to preserve the lake and park as a great resource for fishing, hiking, camping and swimming.
Chester Woods is located about 7 miles east of Rochester on Hwy. 14.

Good Fishing,
Mike

Can we add some ideas to Chester Woods Lake, like the need to start stocking walleyes in there? Rochester needs a place where a guy can catch some willies where he doesn’t need to drive 40 minutes away. I would say that I am a regular visitor, especially in the spring, of the lake and there are a TON of sunnies in there, and the only real predator are the bucketmouths, they need to be controlled so there are more bull sunnies out there. I really think that walleyes would be a great addition because of their ability to not take over as an dominant species, like a northern would. Plus Rochester fisherman would have a nice 15 min. drive and be able to fish for walleyes. The lake reminds me of a very tiny Devils Lake with all of the timber so I do not think that habitat would be an issue. I wish I could attend and see what they would have to say about that, but I’m going to be out of town for that week. What do y’all think about that stocking????

LARS

I would love to have a good walleye fishery close to Rochester, but any stocking issues are the responsibility of the DNR. FOCW has nothing to do with stocking. Feel free to express your ideas to the DNR,

Thanks,
Mike

I like Chester allot!!, but would love to see them stock some Smallmouth in there. The Crappies there are getting big. Haven’t tied into channel cat yet but saw a picture of a 17 pounder taken there last summer.

Ken