Cass Lake Pike Bay vs Drewery Lake
Water quality, depth, fish species, and recreation comparison.
Cass Lake Pike Bay reads lower on nutrients and algae than Drewery Lake. Both are in Minnesota.
Both Cass Lake Pike Bay and Drewery Lake sit in Minnesota. A same-state comparison strips out the state-level water-quality regime as a variable: any differences in the readings here are about the lakes themselves, not the agencies sampling them. Cass Lake Pike Bay reads materially cleaner than Drewery Lake on nutrients and algae. A gap that wide is unlikely to close in a single year of remediation work; it reflects multi-decade differences in the lakes themselves.
For a recreational visitor, the wider gap in the readings is decisive: Cass Lake Pike Bay has the lower nutrient and algae numbers. For a researcher, the gap is the interesting part: what is different about the two watersheds, and which of those differences is mutable?
Cass Lake Pike Bay
Good clarity, visible to about 13.6 ft.
Drewery Lake
Murky, only visible to about 3.5 ft.
Side-by-Side Metrics
| Metric | Cass Lake Pike Bay | Drewery Lake |
|---|---|---|
| Water Clarity | 13.6 ft Better | 3.5 ft |
| Phosphorus | 10.5 µg/L Better | 11.5 µg/L |
| Chlorophyll-a (Algae) | 3.4 µg/L | 2.7 µg/L Better |
| Maximum Depth | 95 ft | 120 ft Better |
| Surface Area | 4,756 acres | 15,958 acres |
| Public Access | Yes | Yes |
| Fish Species | 20 | 21 Better |
| Trophic State | mesotrophic | mesotrophic |
A green ✓ marks the better value for that metric (lower phosphorus / chlorophyll = cleaner; higher Secchi / depth / species count = better). Surface area and trophic state carry no tick — a bigger lake is not a better lake.
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Compare Cass Lake Pike Bay or Drewery Lake against a different lake.
Verdict
Cass Lake Pike Bay reads lower on nutrients and algae than Drewery Lake. Water clarity: 13.6 ft vs 3.5 ft. For more fish-species variety, Drewery Lake edges ahead with 21 documented species.
Source: EPA National Aquatic Resource Surveys, 2026.