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

Lower Mission Lake (Crow Wing County) carries readings with 6.9 ft clarity and 27 ft max depth. Upper Mission Lake (Crow Wing County) carries readings with 11 ft clarity and 36 ft max depth.

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

Lower Mission Lake has 14 documented fish species. Upper Mission Lake has 13. The lake with more species and better water clarity (Secchi depth) generally supports more diverse and successful fishing.

Lower Mission Lake vs Upper Mission Lake, Water Quality Comparison

Upper Mission Lake reads lower on nutrients and algae than Lower Mission Lake. Both are in Crow Wing County, Minnesota.

Reviewed by LakeQuality Editorial Team · Updated Aug 26, 2026

Both Lower Mission Lake and Upper Mission 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: Upper Mission Lake carries clearly lower phosphorus and chlorophyll-a readings than Lower Mission 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: Upper Mission 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?

Lower Mission Lake

Crow Wing County, Minnesota

Moderate clarity, visible to about 6.9 ft.

Upper Mission Lake

Crow Wing County, Minnesota

Good clarity, visible to about 11 ft.

Stay near Upper Mission Lake →Swap a lake

Side-by-Side Metrics

Metric	Lower Mission Lake	Upper Mission Lake
Water Clarity	6.9 ft	11 ft Better
Phosphorus	36 µg/L	15.5 µg/L Better
Chlorophyll-a (Algae)	14 µg/L	5.1 µg/L Better
Maximum Depth	27 ft	36 ft Better
Surface Area	732 acres	882 acres
Public Access	Yes	Yes
Fish Species	14 Better	13
Trophic State	eutrophic	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 Mission Lake or Upper Mission Lake against a different lake.

Bass Lake vs Lower Mission Lake Clearwater Lake vs Lower Mission Lake Horseshoe Lake vs Upper Mission Lake Bass Lake vs Upper Mission Lake Clearwater Lake vs Upper Mission Lake

Verdict

Upper Mission Lake reads lower on nutrients and algae than Lower Mission Lake. Water clarity: 11 ft vs 6.9 ft. For more fish-species variety, Lower Mission Lake edges ahead with 14 documented species.

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

Source: EPA National Aquatic Resource Surveys, 2026.