Gun Club Lake

Gun Club Lake earns an F: phosphorus readings still being added and clarity at 2.8 ft signal heavy nutrient loading from the surrounding watershed. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

At a TSI of 62, Gun Club Lake reads as eutrophic — nutrient-rich enough that summer algal growth and reduced clarity are expected, not unusual. At only 10 ft deep, Gun Club Lake is shallow — wind keeps the water column mixed and sediment resuspension drives phosphorus levels harder to manage. Gun Club Lake covers 103 acres alongside 1.9 miles of shoreline — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Within the 36 graded lakes of Dakota County, Gun Club Lake sits at rank 36, near the bottom of the county list.

Eurasian watermilfoil has been documented at Gun Club Lake, requiring shoreline management to keep dense mats from crowding native vegetation. The fishery is bass-led, with 10 documented species across the lake's records. A documented public access point at Gun Club Lake makes the lake usable for shore fishing, paddle craft, and trailered boats. 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.