Island Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Island Lake pulls an A: clarity at 10.5 ft and 17 µg/L of phosphorus put it in the top bracket for Minnesota. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

The lake sits in the mesotrophic zone — the band where most well-managed Minnesota lakes fall. At 65 ft of maximum depth, Island Lake stratifies reliably through the summer — the hypolimnion stays cooler and clearer than the surface layer suggests. The lake's 541 acres and 7.1 miles of shoreline put it in the mid-range bucket — large enough for varied use, small enough that watershed inputs reach the whole basin. Among the 77 graded lakes in Hubbard County, Island Lake sits at rank 36, above the county median.

Island Lake is on the Minnesota infested-waters list for zebra mussels — boaters should follow clean-drain-dry protocols when moving gear to or from the lake. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 16 documented species — a notable draw for Minnesota anglers. A documented public access point at Island Lake makes the lake usable for shore fishing, paddle craft, and trailered boats. The lake has a partial ice record — 13 observed ice-outs, centered near Apr 13. 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.