Little Gunflint Lake

Little Gunflint Lake earns an A — water clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate among the best monitored waters in Cook County. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

Trophically, Little Gunflint Lake reads as oligotrophic — nutrient-poor, clear, and ecologically more sensitive to disturbance than richer lakes. At 200 ft of maximum depth, Little Gunflint Lake stratifies reliably through the summer — the hypolimnion stays cooler and clearer than the surface layer suggests. At 4,009 acres, Little Gunflint Lake is one of the larger lakes in Cook County, with 39.2 miles of shoreline supporting multiple distinct use patterns. Within Cook County's 128 graded waters, Little Gunflint Lake sits at rank 25, near the top of the local distribution.

Little Gunflint Lake has at least one documented invasive species (spiny waterflea), so boaters and anglers should observe clean-drain-dry steps when leaving the lake. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 12 documented species — a notable draw for Minnesota anglers. A documented public access point at Little Gunflint Lake makes the lake usable for shore fishing, paddle craft, and trailered boats. The lake has a long ice-out record — 81 observations on file, with a median ice-out around May 6. 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.