Bass Lake

Bass Lake earns an A — every scored parameter (phosphorus) rates among the best monitored waters in Cass County.

A TSI value of 36 puts Bass Lake in the oligotrophic range, where biological productivity stays low and the water column remains clear. At 55 ft of maximum depth, Bass Lake stratifies reliably through the summer — the hypolimnion stays cooler and clearer than the surface layer suggests. Bass Lake covers 195 acres alongside 3.4 miles of shoreline — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Bass Lake ranks 7 of 132 in Cass County, putting it in the upper tier of locally monitored lakes.

Bass Lake has no invasive species recorded in Minnesota state databases as of 2022, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. The fishery includes walleye among the lake's 12 documented species — a notable draw for Minnesota anglers. Public access is available — the lake is on the Minnesota PCA public-access list. Monitoring depth is thin here: the LakeGrade rubric is applied to a small number of sample years, and the grade will be revised as more data accumulates.