Crooked Lake

Crooked Lake comes in at a B on the grading rubric — a respectable showing for a Minnesota lake of its size and depth. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

The lake sits in the mesotrophic zone — the band where most well-managed Minnesota lakes fall. Crooked Lake reaches 26 ft at its deepest point — typical for Minnesota mid-sized lakes, with seasonal stratification but limited cold-water refuge. Crooked Lake covers 115 acres alongside 2.9 miles of shoreline — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Within Anoka County's 24 graded waters, Crooked Lake sits at rank 5, near the top of the local distribution.

Crooked Lake carries an invasive watermilfoil record — boat-launch decontamination and shoreline care matter more here than at uninfested lakes. The fishery is bass-led, with 12 documented species across the lake's records. A documented public access point at Crooked Lake makes the lake usable for shore fishing, paddle craft, and trailered boats. Ice-out has been recorded 15 times at Crooked Lake, with a median around Apr 4. The grade is based on limited monitoring — fewer than three independent measurement years contribute, so future updates may shift the letter.