Goose Lake vs Rush Lake
Water quality, depth, fish species, and recreation comparison.
Goose Lake reads lower on nutrients and algae than Rush Lake. Both are in Chisago County, Minnesota.
Both Goose Lake and Rush 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. The readings are meaningfully apart: Goose Lake carries clearly lower phosphorus and chlorophyll-a readings than Rush Lake. A spread that wide reflects real underlying differences, in watershed inputs, depth profiles, or monitoring rigor.
For a recreational visitor, the wider gap in the readings is decisive: Goose Lake 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?
Goose Lake
Murky, only visible to about 4.5 ft.
Rush Lake
Very murky, less than 3 ft of visibility.
Side-by-Side Metrics
| Metric | Goose Lake | Rush Lake |
|---|---|---|
| Water Clarity | 4.5 ft Better | 3 ft |
| Phosphorus | 30.5 µg/L Better | 55.5 µg/L |
| Chlorophyll-a (Algae) | 11.5 µg/L Better | 31.4 µg/L |
| Maximum Depth | 55 ft Better | 24 ft |
| Surface Area | 732 acres | 1,494 acres |
| Public Access | Yes | Yes |
| Fish Species | 15 | 16 Better |
| Trophic State | eutrophic | eutrophic |
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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Verdict
Goose Lake reads lower on nutrients and algae than Rush Lake. Water clarity: 4.5 ft vs 3 ft. For more fish-species variety, Rush Lake edges ahead with 16 documented species.
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Source: EPA National Aquatic Resource Surveys, 2026.