Little Hanging Horn Lake

Little Hanging Horn Lake carries a solid B grade — strong on most parameters, with measurements that hold up well across the summer season.

Mesotrophic conditions dominate at Little Hanging Horn Lake: enough nutrients for a healthy fishery, not so much that algal blooms become a chronic problem. The lake bottoms out at 31 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. Little Hanging Horn Lake covers 100 acres alongside 2.6 miles of shoreline — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Among the 33 graded lakes in Carlton County, Little Hanging Horn Lake sits at rank 10, above the county median.

Eurasian watermilfoil has been documented at Little Hanging Horn Lake, requiring shoreline management to keep dense mats from crowding native vegetation. The fishery includes walleye among the lake's 11 documented species — a notable draw for Minnesota anglers. Public access is available — the lake is on the Minnesota PCA public-access list. Ice-out has been recorded 10 times at Little Hanging Horn Lake, with a median around Apr 19. 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.