Gull Lake

Gull Lake earns a C — middle-of-the-pack water quality, with one or two parameters dragging the average down from a stronger grade. The lake's weakest score is on Secchi depth — the water looks more turbid than its phosphorus number alone would predict.

Eutrophic conditions are the baseline here: clarity drops noticeably in late summer, and dissolved oxygen near the bottom can become a concern. The lake bottoms out at 23 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. With 2,256 acres of surface and 12.8 miles of shoreline, Gull Lake is a large water by Minnesota standards — recreational pressure is spread across a long shoreline. Gull Lake ranks 74 of 92 in Beltrami County — at the lower end of the locally monitored distribution.

Starry stonewort has been recorded at Gull Lake — a relatively new invasive in Minnesota that forms dense, hard-to-remove mats. The fishery includes walleye among the lake's 13 documented species — a notable draw for Minnesota anglers. Public access is available — the lake is on the Minnesota PCA public-access list. The grade is based on limited monitoring — fewer than three independent measurement years contribute, so future updates may shift the letter.