Brule Lake

Brule Lake comes in at a B on the grading rubric — a respectable showing for a Minnesota lake of its size and depth.

Mesotrophic conditions dominate at Brule Lake: enough nutrients for a healthy fishery, not so much that algal blooms become a chronic problem. Brule Lake is unusually deep for Minnesota at 78 ft, which buffers the lake against summer warming and helps the deep water stay oxygenated. At 4,327 acres, Brule Lake is one of the larger lakes in Cook County, with 63.1 miles of shoreline supporting multiple distinct use patterns. Brule Lake ranks 50 of 128 in Cook County — solidly in the upper half of the local distribution.

No invasive species are currently listed at Brule Lake — the lake remains off the Minnesota infested-waters roster. Walleye are documented at Brule Lake, one of 6 fish species on record for the lake. Public access is available — the lake is on the Minnesota PCA public-access list. The lake has a partial ice record — 8 observed ice-outs, centered near May 5. 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.