Silver Lake (St. Louis County, DOW 69066200)
St. Louis County, Minnesota - DNR stocking history, depth and survey data
Minnesota · Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) · DOW 69066200
DNR records show 5 stocking entries at Silver Lake (St. Louis County, DOW 69066200) since 2017, most recently walleye fingerlings in 2025 (656 fish).
- Silver Lake (St. Louis County, DOW 69066200) has 5 DNR stocking records across 5 years (2017-2025): walleye (5).
- The most-stocked species by count is walleye: 4,341 fish on record.
- Maximum depth 29 ft; surface area 46 acres, 32 littoral acres, 1.1 miles of shoreline, per the DNR lake survey.
- Average water clarity (Secchi depth) 13.0 ft.
- Fish species DNR lists here: black crappie, bluegill, brown bullhead, largemouth bass, northern pike, pumpkinseed, rock bass, walleye, white sucker, yellow perch.
- 3 public accesses on the DNR list.
- Most recent DNR fish survey: (standard survey).
- St. Louis County, nearest town Virginia; DNR lake number (DOW) 69066200.
Depth map
Bathymetric contours from the Minnesota DNR lake survey mapped 9/21/1982 (orig map); depths in feet. Simplified for the web; not for navigation.
Stocking history
| Year | Species | Size | Number | Pounds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Walleye2 | fingerlings | 656 | 32.0 |
| 2023 | Walleye2 | fingerlings | 928 | 32.0 |
| 2021 | Walleye2 | fingerlings | 1,088 | 32.0 |
| 2019 | Walleye2 | fingerlings | 1,029 | 31.9 |
| 2017 | Walleye2 | fingerlings | 640 | 32.0 |
2 fish purchased by the DNR for stocking.
Field note · Minnesota stocks by year, not by truck day: walleye fry go in within weeks of ice-out, fingerlings and yearlings mostly in fall, and stream trout in spring and fall. A row here means the fish went in during that year; DNR adds the year's rows after the fact, so the current year can look empty until winter.
Public accesses
| Type | Owner | Where |
|---|---|---|
| concrete ramp | city | - City park along W shore of lake. Motors are not allowed on Silver Lake. |
| O | city | - Fishing pier on NE corner of lake. |
| O | city | - Fishing pier on S shore; shore fishing is possible around most of the lake. |
DNR fish survey, 2020
| Species | Gear | Catch per net | Total catch | Avg lb |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bluegill | Standard trap nets | 14.40 | 72 | 0.08 |
| Pumpkinseed | Standard trap nets | 4.00 | 20 | 0.10 |
| Brown bullhead | Standard trap nets | 0.80 | 4 | 1.46 |
| Yellow perch | Standard trap nets | 0.60 | 3 | 0.21 |
| Northern pike | Standard trap nets | 0.60 | 3 | 1.35 |
| Black crappie | Standard trap nets | 0.60 | 3 | 0.45 |
| Rock bass | Standard trap nets | 0.40 | 2 | 0.23 |
| Bluegill | Standard gill nets | 9.50 | 19 | 0.09 |
| Northern pike | Standard gill nets | 7.00 | 14 | 3.73 |
| Pumpkinseed | Standard gill nets | 4.00 | 8 | 0.09 |
| White sucker | Standard gill nets | 3.00 | 6 | 2.32 |
| Largemouth bass | Standard gill nets | 3.00 | 6 | 1.71 |
| Black crappie | Standard gill nets | 2.50 | 5 | 0.48 |
| Walleye | Standard gill nets | 1.50 | 3 | 3.53 |
| Yellow perch | Standard gill nets | 0.50 | 1 | 0.30 |
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.
Silver Lake is a 46 acre lake located in the northwest part of the city of Virginia. It is accessed by a concrete ramp on the lakes west shore, with a small parking area. Only electric motors are allowed on the lake. There are also two fishing piers (one on the south shore and one in the northeast corner), and a swimming beach in the northwest corner. This lake has a maximum depth of 29 feet and clear water. Silver was weakly thermally stratified on July 6, 2020 with a surface temperature of 79 F and a bottom temperature of 52 F. Oxygen levels were adequate for gamefish throughout the water column. There is one inlet from Virginia Lake, which allows for fish passage but is not passable by boat. Lake bottom substrates along the shoreline are mostly gravel, sand, and boulder. There are extremely dense beds of aquatic vegetation along the shoreline to a depth of 6 feet and additional vegetation growth to a maximum depth of 12 feet. The overall gillnet catch rate for all fish combined was 31.5 fish/net which was below average for the lake, however yield was 46.4 lbs/net, which was better than average. Fish species sampled were bluegill, northern pike, pumpkinseed, largemouth bass, white sucker, black crappie, walleye, yellow perch, and rock bass. Trap nets caught fish at an overall rate of 21.4 fish/net which was the lowest catch rate on record. Yield was 4.0 lbs/net which was also the lowest on record. This survey was conducted later in the summer than past surveys which made trap netting more difficult due to the amount of aquatic vegetation that had already grown up. This may have been a factor in the lower catches. Brown bullhead was the only additional species sampled in trap nets that wasn't also sampled in gill nets. Three walleye were sampled in the two gillnet sets for a catch rate of 1.5 fish/net. This was below average compared to other similar lakes, and compared to the average catch rate on Silver Lake. The fish were all about 6 years old and 19 and 23 inches long, indicating that stocking has not been very effective in providing a walleye fishery and there is little to no natural reproduction. Silver lake is stocked with fingerling walleye in odd years (2015, 2017, 2019, etc). The northern pike gillnet catch was 7.0 fish/net which was the highest on record for Silver Lake and very good compared to other similar lakes. Lengths ranged from 18 to 30 inches with an average of just over 25 inches. Six largemouth bass were captured in gill nets for a catch rate of 3.0 fish/net which was very good compared to other similar lakes and the highest on…
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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