Carlson Lake

Carlson Lake comes in at a B on the grading rubric — a respectable showing for a Minnesota lake of its size and depth. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

The lake sits in the mesotrophic zone — the band where most well-managed Minnesota lakes fall. The lake bottoms out at 19 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. At 12 acres, Carlson Lake sits below the Minnesota median: a small water where shoreline activity has an outsized effect on water quality. Carlson Lake ranks 9 of 36 in Dakota County, putting it in the upper tier of locally monitored lakes.

Carlson Lake has no invasive species recorded in Minnesota state databases as of 2024, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 6 documented species — a notable draw for Minnesota anglers. No formal public access is documented at Carlson 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.