What is the difference between Clear Lake and Round Lake?

Clear Lake (Aitkin County) holds Grade A with 15 ft clarity and 24 ft max depth. Round Lake (Aitkin County) holds Grade A with 14.5 ft clarity and 125 ft max depth.

Is Clear Lake or Round Lake better for fishing?

Clear Lake has 14 documented fish species. Round Lake has 18. The lake with more species and better water clarity (Secchi depth) generally supports more diverse and successful fishing.

Clear Lake vs Round Lake

Water quality, depth, fish species, and recreation comparison.

Clear Lake and Round Lake both received the same overall water quality grade of A (Excellent). Both are in Aitkin County, Minnesota.

Reviewed by LakeQuality Editorial Team · Updated Aug 2, 2026

Clear Lake and Round 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: Clear Lake (A) and Round 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.

Clear Lake

Aitkin County, Minnesota

Crystal clear, you can see 15 ft down.

Round Lake

Aitkin County, Minnesota

Good clarity, visible to about 14.5 ft.

Stay near Clear Lake →Swap a lake

Side-by-Side Metrics

Metric	Clear Lake	Round Lake
Overall Grade	A (Excellent)	A (Excellent)
Water Clarity	15 ft Better	14.5 ft
Phosphorus	13 µg/L	10 µg/L Better
Chlorophyll-a (Algae)	4.3 µg/L	2.7 µg/L Better
Maximum Depth	24 ft	125 ft Better
Surface Area	574 acres	737 acres
Public Access	Yes	Yes
Fish Species	14	18 Better
Trophic State	mesotrophic	oligotrophic

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.

Swap a lake

Compare Clear Lake or Round Lake against a different lake.

Ml-Ce Lake vs Round Lake Ml-Garrison Lake vs Round Lake Ml-Ne Lake vs Round Lake Ml-Nshore Lake vs Round Lake Ml-Nw Lake vs Round Lake Ml-Seventeen Lake vs Round Lake

Verdict

Both lakes earn the same Grade A. The tiebreakers come down to clarity (Clear Lake: 15 ft, Round Lake: 14.5 ft) and what you want from the lake. Clear Lake has fewer fish species than Round Lake.

Full Clear Lake report →Full Round Lake report →All Aitkin County lakes →Cleanest lakes in Minnesota →

Source: EPA National Aquatic Resource Surveys, 2026.