Fifth Crow Wing Lake

On the LakeGrade scale Fifth Crow Wing Lake grades a B, with clarity at 9.5 ft and 20 µg/L of phosphorus placing it above the Minnesota median. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

A TSI near 46 places Fifth Crow Wing Lake in the mesotrophic band — moderate productivity, with seasonal swings between clearer spring water and richer late-summer conditions. A maximum depth of 35 ft puts Fifth Crow Wing Lake in the middle of Minnesota's depth distribution. Fifth Crow Wing Lake covers 400 acres alongside 4.3 miles of shoreline — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Within the 77 graded lakes of Hubbard County, Fifth Crow Wing Lake sits at rank 66, near the bottom of the county list.

Fifth Crow Wing Lake has no invasive species recorded in Minnesota state databases as of 2024, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 15 documented species — a notable draw for Minnesota anglers. No formal public access is documented at Fifth Crow Wing Lake — most use is by shoreline residents and their guests. The lake has a long ice-out record — 32 observations on file, with a median ice-out around Apr 15. 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.