What is the difference between Lower Cullen Lake and Upper Cullen Lake?

Lower Cullen Lake (Crow Wing County) holds Grade A with 17.4 ft clarity and 39 ft max depth. Upper Cullen Lake (Crow Wing County) holds Grade A with 8.7 ft clarity and 40 ft max depth.

Is Lower Cullen Lake or Upper Cullen Lake better for fishing?

Lower Cullen Lake has 16 documented fish species. Upper Cullen Lake has 14. The lake with more species and better water clarity (Secchi depth) generally supports more diverse and successful fishing.

Lower Cullen Lake vs Upper Cullen Lake

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

Lower Cullen Lake and Upper Cullen Lake both received the same overall water quality grade of A (Excellent). Both are in Crow Wing County, Minnesota.

Reviewed by LakeQuality Editorial Team · Updated Aug 2, 2026

Lower Cullen Lake and Upper Cullen 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: Lower Cullen Lake (A) and Upper Cullen 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.

Lower Cullen Lake

Crow Wing County, Minnesota

Crystal clear, you can see 17.4 ft down.

Upper Cullen Lake

Crow Wing County, Minnesota

Moderate clarity, visible to about 8.7 ft.

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Side-by-Side Metrics

Metric	Lower Cullen Lake	Upper Cullen Lake
Overall Grade	A (Excellent)	A (Excellent)
Water Clarity	17.4 ft Better	8.7 ft
Phosphorus	14.5 µg/L Better	23 µg/L
Chlorophyll-a (Algae)	2.7 µg/L Better	6.8 µg/L
Maximum Depth	39 ft	40 ft Better
Surface Area	560 acres	441 acres
Public Access	Yes	Yes
Fish Species	16 Better	14
Trophic State	oligotrophic	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 Lower Cullen Lake or Upper Cullen Lake against a different lake.

Clearwater Lake vs Lower Cullen Lake Clearwater Lake vs Upper Cullen Lake

Verdict

Both lakes earn the same Grade A. The tiebreakers come down to clarity (Lower Cullen Lake: 17.4 ft, Upper Cullen Lake: 8.7 ft) and what you want from the lake. Lower Cullen Lake supports more documented fish species.

Full Lower Cullen Lake report →Full Upper Cullen Lake report →All Crow Wing County lakes →Cleanest lakes in Minnesota →

Source: EPA National Aquatic Resource Surveys, 2026.