Little Vermilion Lake

Little Vermilion Lake carries a solid B grade — strong on most parameters, with measurements that hold up well across the summer season. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

A TSI near 44 places Little Vermilion Lake in the mesotrophic band — moderate productivity, with seasonal swings between clearer spring water and richer late-summer conditions. A maximum depth of 17 ft puts Little Vermilion Lake in the middle of Minnesota's depth distribution. The lake's 116 acres and 2.5 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 187 graded lakes in St. Louis County, Little Vermilion Lake sits at rank 68, above the county median.

Little Vermilion Lake has no invasive species recorded in Minnesota state databases as of 2021, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. The lake's fish records list 2 species — a varied community without one dominant gamefish. No formal public access is documented at Little Vermilion Lake — most use is by shoreline residents and their guests. 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.