Leven Lake
Pope County, Minnesota - DNR stocking history, depth and survey data
Minnesota · Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) · DOW 61006600
Leven Lake has no DNR stocking rows in LakeFinder; this page carries its DNR depth, access and survey data.
- Leven Lake shows no stocking records in Minnesota DNR LakeFinder as of .
- Maximum depth 33 ft, mean depth 13 ft; surface area 282 acres, 159 littoral acres, 2.6 miles of shoreline, per the DNR lake survey.
- Average water clarity (Secchi depth) 9.3 ft.
- Fish species DNR lists here: black crappie, bluegill, bowfin (dogfish), brown bullhead, common carp, hybrid sunfish, largemouth bass, northern pike, pumpkinseed, walleye, white sucker, yellow bullhead, and 1 more.
- 1 public access on the DNR list.
- Most recent DNR fish survey: (standard survey).
- Pope County, nearest town Villard; DNR lake number (DOW) 61006600.
Depth map
Bathymetric contours from the Minnesota DNR lake survey (get source); depths in feet. Simplified for the web; not for navigation.
Public accesses
| Type | Owner | Where |
|---|---|---|
| concrete ramp | Minnesota DNR |
DNR fish survey, 2025
| Species | Gear | Catch per net | Total catch | Avg lb |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Largemouth bass | Standard electrofishing | 52.06 | 59 | 1.16 |
| Northern pike | Standard gill nets | 29.00 | 174 | 1.91 |
| Bluegill | Standard gill nets | 8.00 | 48 | 0.32 |
| Yellow bullhead | Standard gill nets | 4.67 | 28 | 0.91 |
| Largemouth bass | Standard gill nets | 2.17 | 13 | 1.48 |
| Walleye | Standard gill nets | 1.50 | 9 | 3.65 |
| Black crappie | Standard gill nets | 1.17 | 7 | 0.50 |
| Yellow perch | Standard gill nets | 0.67 | 4 | 0.08 |
| Brown bullhead | Standard gill nets | 0.33 | 2 | 1.70 |
| Bluegill | Standard trap nets | 9.33 | 84 | 0.21 |
| Black crappie | Standard trap nets | 7.89 | 71 | 0.42 |
| Pumpkinseed | Standard trap nets | 1.67 | 15 | 0.17 |
| Hybrid sunfish | Standard trap nets | 0.11 | 1 | 0.49 |
Catch per net (CPUE) is the DNR survey's count per gill net or trap net set; higher means more of that species were sampled, not a fishing forecast. Top species per gear shown; where we have no verified common name for a DNR code, the code itself is shown.
Leven Lake is a 283-acre lake located in northeast Pope County. It is the most upstream basin in a chain of three lakes, which includes Leven, Villard and Amelia. Flowage connections between these systems are non-navigable. An access is located on the southeast corner of the lake. Pope County Judicial Ditch 4 drains into the northeast side of Leven Lake, contributing excessive nutrients and sediment from a predominantly agricultural watershed. Water clarity is variable during summer months in response to algae blooms or aquatic plant growth. Aquatic vegetation can be excessively abundant and hinder watercraft operation at times. Average and maximum depths are 13 and 33 feet, respectively. Spring trap netting was conducted April 30 to May 2 when panfish were up shallow and vulnerable to capture, and only comparable to other spring targeted panfish surveys. Bluegill abundance (9.3/trap net) was similar to the 2023 targeted panfish survey (8.6/trap net). Growth is similar to other lakes with reduced sunfish bag limits. Most fish were young. The prevalence of young fish led to an overall poor size structure, with a mean length of only 6.2 inches. However, the largest fish sampled was 9.5 inches. Sunfish anglers are reminded that a special regulation was implemented in 2022 that reduced the daily bag limit of sunfish from 20 to 10 to help protect and improve sunfish quality on this lake. For more information regarding the Quality Sunfish Initiative, see the following: https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/fish/sunfish/index.html. The Black Crappie catch (7.9/trap net) was lower than the 2023 targeted survey (9.9/trap net), but higher than the catch in 2022 (2.6/trap net). Growth was moderate. Similar to Bluegill, the size structure was poor because of predominately young fish in the system. This led to a mean length of only 9.0 inches, although the largest crappie sampled was 12.5 inches. While only directly comparable to the 2019 survey because of changes in sampling methodology, the Largemouth Bass population (52.1 bass per hour of electrofishing) was higher than any past survey. Many small fish were present, ranging from 2.6 to 17.2 inches. Northern Pike continue to be overly abundant (29.0/gill net), with the 2025 survey being the highest on record. Most pike were small (76% under 22 inches; average length=20.3 inches), but the largest pike was 37.0 inches. Anglers are encouraged to harvest small Northern Pike. New Northern Pike regulations were implemented in 2018 to increase size structure. Leven Lake is in the North-Central Zone, where all pike from 22 to 26…
Minnesota DNR survey narrative, .
All Minnesota stockings · every Minnesota lake with a page · state CSV · this lake on DNR LakeFinder
Stocking rows, depths, accesses and survey figures are Minnesota DNR LakeFinder data as of 2026-09-02; contours are the DNR bathymetric survey. Regulations, slot limits and special rules are on the DNR page linked above, not here.
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