Hook Lake

Hook Lake grades an F: water clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate poorly, placing it among the most stressed lakes monitored in Minnesota. 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. The lake bottoms out at 18 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. Hook Lake covers 330 acres alongside 4.4 miles of shoreline — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Hook Lake ranks 5 of 5 in McLeod County — at the lower end of the locally monitored distribution.

No invasive species are currently listed at Hook Lake — the lake remains off the Minnesota infested-waters roster. 3 fish species are documented at Hook Lake, a mixed warm-water community typical for Minnesota lakes of this size. Public access is available — the lake is on the Minnesota PCA public-access list. 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.