Gilchrist Lake

Gilchrist Lake pulls a D on the LakeGrade rubric — phosphorus loading and limited clarity hold it below the Minnesota average. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

Eutrophic conditions are the baseline here: clarity drops noticeably in late summer, and dissolved oxygen near the bottom can become a concern. Gilchrist Lake reaches 24 ft at its deepest point — typical for Minnesota mid-sized lakes, with seasonal stratification but limited cold-water refuge. At 336 acres, Gilchrist Lake fits the Minnesota median for monitored lakes, with 5.1 miles of shoreline. Within Pope County's 25 graded lakes, Gilchrist Lake ranks 18 — below the local median, though not at the bottom.

Zebra mussel presence at Gilchrist Lake means the lake's clarity numbers carry an asterisk — filtered water is not the same as nutrient-poor water. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 15 documented species — a notable draw for Minnesota anglers. Public access is available — the lake is on the Minnesota PCA public-access list. The lake has a partial ice record — 16 observed ice-outs, centered near Apr 10. 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.