Bad Medicine Lake vs Maud Lake
Water quality, depth, fish species, and recreation comparison.
Bad Medicine Lake and Maud Lake both received the same overall water quality grade of A (Excellent). Both are in Becker County, Minnesota.
Bad Medicine Lake and Maud Lake are both in Minnesota — a same-state head-to-head where the comparison comes down to lake-specific differences in depth, watershed, and monitoring history rather than the broader state-level water-quality regime. The grades are close: Bad Medicine Lake (A) and Maud Lake (A) are within one letter of each other on the LakeGrade rubric. The per-parameter sub-grades below will show where the small differences actually live.
With grades this close, the choice between the two lakes turns on non-water-quality factors: depth, fish species, public access, distance from home. The per-lake pages below cover all of those.
Bad Medicine Lake
Crystal clear, you can see 25 ft down.
Maud Lake
Crystal clear, you can see 17 ft down.
Side-by-Side Metrics
| Metric | Bad Medicine Lake | Maud Lake |
|---|---|---|
| Overall Grade | A (Excellent) | A (Excellent) |
| Water Clarity | 25 ft | 17 ft |
| Phosphorus | 6 µg/L | 10 µg/L |
| Chlorophyll-a (Algae) | 1.6 µg/L | 2.7 µg/L |
| Maximum Depth | 84 ft | 32 ft |
| Surface Area | 803 acres | 517 acres |
| Public Access | Yes | Yes |
| Fish Species | 13 | 15 |
| Trophic State | oligotrophic | oligotrophic |
Bold value = better for that metric (lower phosphorus / chlorophyll = cleaner; higher Secchi / depth / species count = better).
Verdict
Both lakes earn the same Grade A. The tiebreakers come down to clarity (Bad Medicine Lake: 25 ft, Maud Lake: 17 ft) and what you want from the lake. Bad Medicine Lake has fewer fish species than Maud Lake.
Source: EPA National Aquatic Resource Surveys, 2026.