Fifth Chain Lake

Fifth Chain Lake carries a solid B grade — strong on most parameters, with measurements that hold up well across the summer season. 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. Fifth Chain Lake reaches 42 ft at its deepest point — typical for Minnesota mid-sized lakes, with seasonal stratification but limited cold-water refuge. Fifth Chain Lake covers 193 acres alongside 4.2 miles of shoreline — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Fifth Chain Lake sits at rank 84 of 141 in Itasca County, in the lower half of the local distribution.

Fifth Chain Lake has no invasive species recorded in Minnesota state databases as of 2024, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. The state fisheries records do not list documented species for Fifth Chain Lake, which usually reflects a lack of formal fisheries survey work rather than an empty lake. The lake lacks a documented public access point, so visitor use is limited. 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.