Carey Lake

Carey Lake earns a C — middle-of-the-pack water quality, with one or two parameters dragging the average down from a stronger grade. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

Eutrophic conditions are the baseline here: clarity drops noticeably in late summer, and dissolved oxygen near the bottom can become a concern. At only 14 ft deep, Carey Lake is shallow — wind keeps the water column mixed and sediment resuspension drives phosphorus levels harder to manage. At 145 acres, Carey Lake fits the Minnesota median for monitored lakes, with 2.0 miles of shoreline. Within St. Louis County's 187 graded lakes, Carey Lake ranks 138 — below the local median, though not at the bottom.

Carey Lake has no invasive species recorded in Minnesota state databases as of 2020, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. Walleye are documented at Carey Lake, one of 8 fish species on record for the lake. A documented public access point at Carey 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.