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.

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. The lake's 447 acres and 3.9 miles of shoreline put it in the mid-range bucket — large enough for varied use, small enough that watershed inputs reach the whole basin. Within Otter Tail County's 97 graded lakes, East Lost Lake ranks 51 — below the local median, though not at the bottom.

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. A documented public access point at East Lost Lake makes the lake usable for shore fishing, paddle craft, and trailered boats. Ice-out has been recorded 8 times at East Lost Lake, with a median around Apr 20. 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.