Clearwater Lake

Clearwater Lake carries a solid B grade — strong on most parameters, with measurements that hold up well across the summer season. 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. At 73 ft of maximum depth, Clearwater Lake stratifies reliably through the summer — the hypolimnion stays cooler and clearer than the surface layer suggests. At 3,187 acres, Clearwater Lake is one of the larger lakes in Wright County, with 22.3 miles of shoreline supporting multiple distinct use patterns. Clearwater Lake ranks 14 of 64 in Wright County, putting it in the upper tier of locally monitored lakes.

Clearwater Lake is on the Minnesota infested-waters list for zebra mussels — boaters should follow clean-drain-dry protocols when moving gear to or from the lake. Walleye are documented at Clearwater Lake, one of 17 fish species on record for the lake. A documented public access point at Clearwater Lake makes the lake usable for shore fishing, paddle craft, and trailered boats. Ice-out has been recorded 11 times at Clearwater Lake, with a median around Apr 11. 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.