Clear Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Clear Lake pulls an A: clarity at 14.9 ft and 9 µg/L of phosphorus put it in the top bracket for Minnesota. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

The lake's low TSI puts it in oligotrophic territory — the cleanest of the four trophic classes, but also the most vulnerable to nutrient-driven shifts. The lake bottoms out at 30 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. Clear Lake covers 140 acres alongside 3.4 miles of shoreline — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Among the 141 graded lakes in Itasca County, Clear Lake ranks 8 — in the top quartile locally.

No invasive species are currently listed at Clear Lake — the lake remains off the Minnesota infested-waters roster. Walleye are documented at Clear Lake, one of 9 fish species on record for the lake. Public access is available — the lake is on the Minnesota PCA public-access list. 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.