Crawford Lake

Crawford Lake sits at a C on the grading scale — not impaired, not pristine, with summer measurements that vary year to year. The lake's weakest score is on Secchi depth — the water looks more turbid than its phosphorus number alone would predict.

Mesotrophic conditions dominate at Crawford Lake: enough nutrients for a healthy fishery, not so much that algal blooms become a chronic problem. Crawford Lake reaches 19 ft at its deepest point — typical for Minnesota mid-sized lakes, with seasonal stratification but limited cold-water refuge. Crawford Lake covers 110 acres alongside 1.9 miles of shoreline — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Crawford Lake ranks 27 of 64 in Wright County — solidly in the upper half of the local distribution.

Crawford Lake has no invasive species recorded in Minnesota state databases as of 2024, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. Walleye are documented at Crawford Lake, one of 12 fish species on record for the lake. A documented public access point at Crawford 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.