Bear Trap Lake

Bear Trap Lake sits at a C on the grading scale — not impaired, not pristine, with summer measurements that vary year to year. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

Mesotrophic conditions dominate at Bear Trap Lake: enough nutrients for a healthy fishery, not so much that algal blooms become a chronic problem. Bear Trap Lake reaches 38 ft at its deepest point — typical for Minnesota mid-sized lakes, with seasonal stratification but limited cold-water refuge. The lake's 121 acres and 2.9 miles of shoreline put it in the mid-range bucket — large enough for varied use, small enough that watershed inputs reach the whole basin. Bear Trap Lake sits at rank 123 of 187 in St. Louis County, in the lower half of the local distribution.

No invasive species are currently listed at Bear Trap Lake — the lake remains off the Minnesota infested-waters roster. The state fisheries records do not list documented species for Bear Trap Lake, which usually reflects a lack of formal fisheries survey work rather than an empty lake. No formal public access is documented at Bear Trap Lake — most use is by shoreline residents and their guests. 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.