East Lost Lake

East Lost 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. A maximum depth of 26 ft puts East Lost Lake in the middle of Minnesota's depth distribution. East Lost Lake covers 447 acres alongside 3.9 miles of shoreline — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. East Lost Lake sits at rank 51 of 97 in Otter Tail County, in the lower half of the local distribution.

Zebra mussel presence at East Lost Lake means the lake's clarity numbers carry an asterisk — filtered water is not the same as nutrient-poor water. Walleye are documented at East Lost Lake, one of 16 fish species on record for the lake. Public access is available — the lake is on the Minnesota PCA public-access list. The lake has a partial ice record — 8 observed ice-outs, centered near Apr 20. The grade is based on limited monitoring — fewer than three independent measurement years contribute, so future updates may shift the letter.