Long Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Long Lake pulls an A: clarity at 12.1 ft and 20 µg/L of phosphorus put it in the top bracket for Minnesota. Sub-grades cluster within a single letter of each other, which usually means the lake is in stable trophic balance rather than fighting one specific stressor.

The lake sits in the mesotrophic zone — the band where most well-managed Minnesota lakes fall. The lake's 88 ft maximum depth is in the upper tier for Minnesota — deep enough for cold-water fish to find refuge in summer. Long Lake covers 395 acres alongside 6.2 miles of shoreline — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Among the 97 graded lakes in Otter Tail County, Long Lake sits at rank 27, above the county median.

No invasive species are currently listed at Long Lake — the lake remains off the Minnesota infested-waters roster. The fishery is bass-led, with 1 documented species across the lake's records. A documented public access point at Long Lake makes the lake usable for shore fishing, paddle craft, and trailered boats. 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.