Bean Lake

On the LakeGrade scale Bean Lake grades a B, with clarity at 9.8 ft and 9 µg/L of phosphorus placing it above the Minnesota median. Clarity is the limiting factor — phosphorus is reasonable but suspended particles or algal cells keep water transparency below Minnesota norms.

The lake sits in the mesotrophic zone — the band where most well-managed Minnesota lakes fall. The lake bottoms out at 26 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. The lake is compact at 31 acres, with 1.0 miles of shoreline and little volume to buffer nutrient inputs. Among the 142 graded lakes in Lake County, Bean Lake sits at rank 69, above the county median.

Bean Lake has no invasive species recorded in Minnesota state databases as of 2023, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. The lake's fish records list 3 species — a varied community without one dominant gamefish. A documented public access point at Bean Lake makes the lake usable for shore fishing, paddle craft, and trailered boats. 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.