Borden Lake

Borden Lake comes in at a B on the grading rubric — a respectable showing for a Minnesota lake of its size and depth. Sub-grades cluster within a single letter of each other, which usually means the lake is in stable trophic balance rather than fighting one specific stressor.

The lake sits in the mesotrophic zone — the band where most well-managed Minnesota lakes fall. The lake's 84 ft maximum depth is in the upper tier for Minnesota — deep enough for cold-water fish to find refuge in summer. With 1,011 acres of surface and 12.4 miles of shoreline, Borden Lake is a large water by Minnesota standards — recreational pressure is spread across a long shoreline. Within Crow Wing County's 120 graded lakes, Borden Lake ranks 86 — below the local median, though not at the bottom.

No invasive species are currently listed at Borden Lake — the lake remains off the Minnesota infested-waters roster. Borden Lake's fishery is anchored by muskellunge, with 16 documented species in total — a destination water for muskie anglers. Public access is available — the lake is on the Minnesota PCA public-access list. The lake has a long ice-out record — 30 observations on file, with a median ice-out around Apr 18. 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.