Fox Lake

Fox Lake earns an F: 193 µg/L of phosphorus and clarity at 1.0 ft signal heavy nutrient loading from the surrounding watershed. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

Hypereutrophic conditions mean the lake is operating at the upper end of the productivity scale, with all the bloom risk that implies. The lake bottoms out at 20 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. The lake's 951 acres and 11.3 miles of shoreline put it in the mid-range bucket — large enough for varied use, small enough that watershed inputs reach the whole basin. Fox Lake sits at rank 9 of 14 in Martin County, in the lower half of the local distribution.

No invasive species are currently listed at Fox Lake — the lake remains off the Minnesota infested-waters roster. Fox Lake's fishery is anchored by muskellunge, with 17 documented species in total — a destination water for muskie anglers. 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 Mar 22. 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.