Recently Stocked Lakes in Minnesota

1,218 lakes with a stocking record from 2024 or later

What “recently stocked” means here

A lake is on this page when its most recent stocking record falls in 2024 or later — the current year plus the 2 before it. The window slides forward every January, so a lake drops off once its last stocking passes 2 years old.

Stocking records are reported by year, not by date. There is no month or day to show — a lake stocked in April and a lake stocked in October both read as the same year. Fish are stocked into Minnesota waters by state hatcheries and also by tribal bands, federal hatcheries, and local sporting groups, so a stocked lake is not always a state-run project.

Size matters more than the count: yearling trout are catchable the season they go in, while fingerlings and fry are an investment in fishing three or more years out. Each lake page breaks the stocking down species by species, with the size class and the number of fish.

This is a factual recency list, not a ranking. There is no minimum lake size to qualify — small stocked trout ponds are exactly the kind of water worth finding here, and the list below reserves room for them. For quality scores, use the species pages.

Recently stocked lakes by species

Chasing one fish? Each species page lists only the lakes with a stocking record for that species since 2024, with the size class and number of fish from the most recent year.

Recently stocked lakes by county

Showing 200 of 1,218 lakes, grouped by county and most recently stocked first — including 40 slots reserved for lakes 100 acres or under, or of unrecorded size, which a plain size-weighted cut would otherwise crowd out. Open a lake for its full stocking history.

Aitkin County3 lakes shown

Minnewawa

Aitkin County · 2,351 acres

Recently Stocked Lakes in Minnesota

What “recently stocked” means here

Recently stocked lakes by species

Recently stocked lakes by county

Aitkin County3 lakes shown

Anoka County1 lake shown

Becker County13 lakes shown

Beltrami County8 lakes shown

Big Stone County3 lakes shown

Blue Earth County1 lake shown

Brown County2 lakes shown

Carlton County1 lake shown

Carver County1 lake shown

Cass County15 lakes shown

Chisago County2 lakes shown

Clearwater County2 lakes shown

Cook County5 lakes shown

Crow Wing County11 lakes shown

Dakota County1 lake shown

Douglas County7 lakes shown

Freeborn County1 lake shown

Grant County2 lakes shown

Hennepin County1 lake shown

Hubbard County4 lakes shown

Itasca County17 lakes shown

Jackson County2 lakes shown

Kanabec County2 lakes shown

Kandiyohi County12 lakes shown

Koochiching County1 lake shown

Lac qui Parle County2 lakes shown

Lake County2 lakes shown

Le Sueur County2 lakes shown

Lincoln County1 lake shown

Marshall County1 lake shown

McLeod County1 lake shown

Meeker County1 lake shown

Mille Lacs County1 lake shown

Morrison County4 lakes shown

Murray County2 lakes shown

Nobles County1 lake shown

Otter Tail County19 lakes shown

Pennington County1 lake shown

Pine County2 lakes shown

Pipestone County1 lake shown

Polk County2 lakes shown

Pope County3 lakes shown

Ramsey County2 lakes shown

Rice County1 lake shown

St. Louis County14 lakes shown

Stearns County6 lakes shown

Steele County1 lake shown

Todd County4 lakes shown

Traverse County1 lake shown

Waseca County2 lakes shown

Washington County3 lakes shown

Wright County2 lakes shown