Crooked Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Crooked Lake pulls an A: clarity at 15.0 ft and 10 µg/L of phosphorus put it in the top bracket for Minnesota. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

Trophically, Crooked Lake reads as oligotrophic — nutrient-poor, clear, and ecologically more sensitive to disturbance than richer lakes. At 54 ft of maximum depth, Crooked Lake stratifies reliably through the summer — the hypolimnion stays cooler and clearer than the surface layer suggests. At 905 acres, Crooked Lake fits the Minnesota median for monitored lakes, with 8.5 miles of shoreline. Among the 120 graded lakes in Crow Wing County, Crooked Lake ranks 16 — in the top quartile locally.

Eurasian watermilfoil has been documented at Crooked Lake, requiring shoreline management to keep dense mats from crowding native vegetation. Walleye are documented at Crooked Lake, one of 16 fish species on record for the lake. A documented public access point at Crooked Lake makes the lake usable for shore fishing, paddle craft, and trailered boats. The lake has a partial ice record — 17 observed ice-outs, centered near Apr 12. 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.