Edina anglers who drive hundreds of miles to their favorite fishing spot might be surprised to learn that they can drop a line in their hometown lakes.
Cornelia and Centennial lakes offer a wide variety of game fish, thanks to the Minnesota Department of Resources stocking the waters with everything from bluegills to bass since 1961.
With Lake Cornelia literally in his own backyard, Edina park board member Matt Crinkley was an early proponent of fish stocking in the 1960s as a way to improve nearby Cornelia Park (now called Rosland Park), created when the Dayton family donated the land as part of its Southdale mall development in 1956.
Today, the city of Edina parks department and the Department of Natural Resources host Fishing in the Neighborhood (FiN) programs that teach children how to fish and provide fishing opportunities, such as at the public dock at Cornelia and FiN pavers at Centennial Lakes.
The DNR stocks both lakes, but Centennial Lakes offers better shoreline fishing for game fish than the shallower Lake Cornelia (since it’s just 6.5 feet at its deepest, it’s more susceptible to winter kill and results in smaller fish). The average bluegill sunfish at Centennial measures almost 7 inches, an exciting catch for young fishermen.
FiN aims to increase the number of anglers in the state, which has remained steady since the 1970s even though Minnesota’s population has nearly doubled. But the goal is much bigger than selling more fishing licenses, according to Mark Nemeth, senior FiN fisheries specialist. “Youngsters who fish care about lake quality and the surrounding environment. Minnesota’s great outdoors depend on people who would know what they’re missing if it’s gone.” --Marci Matson is the executive director of the Edina Historical Society. She is a monthly back-page contributor, highlighting the history of the community.
