Crooked Lake

Crooked Lake earns a D — measurements through 2025 show persistent nutrient pressure that limits clarity through the summer. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

A TSI in the eutrophic range signals a lake doing what nutrient-loaded waters do — supporting an active algal community at the cost of clear water. The lake's 66 ft maximum depth is in the upper tier for Minnesota — deep enough for cold-water fish to find refuge in summer. Crooked Lake covers 244 acres alongside 9.1 miles of shoreline — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Crooked Lake ranks 109 of 137 in Cook County — at the lower end of the locally monitored distribution.

No invasive species are currently listed at Crooked Lake — the lake remains off the Minnesota infested-waters roster. The lake's fish records list 3 species — a varied community without one dominant gamefish. No formal public access is documented at Crooked Lake — most use is by shoreline residents and their guests. 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.