Cleary Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric Cleary Lake fails the cutoffs — a TSI of 72 and persistent algal pressure put it in the bottom tier. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

A TSI above 70 puts Cleary Lake in hypereutrophic territory: visible blooms are common, and clarity rarely climbs even in early summer. A maximum depth of just 9 ft means sediment-bound phosphorus releases back into the water column whenever wind stirs the bottom — a classic shallow-lake dynamic. The lake's 145 acres and 3.8 miles of shoreline put it in the mid-range bucket — large enough for varied use, small enough that watershed inputs reach the whole basin. Within the 17 graded lakes of Scott County, Cleary Lake sits at rank 14, near the bottom of the county list.

Cleary Lake has no invasive species recorded in Minnesota state databases as of 2023, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. Bass fishing is part of the appeal: the species list runs to 7, anchored by largemouth and/or smallmouth bass. Public access is available — the lake is on the Minnesota PCA public-access list. The lake has a partial ice record — 6 observed ice-outs, centered near Apr 4. 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.