Louise Lake

Louise Lake earns an A — water clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate among the best monitored waters in Douglas County. 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.

A TSI near 41 places Louise Lake in the mesotrophic band — moderate productivity, with seasonal swings between clearer spring water and richer late-summer conditions. The lake bottoms out at 33 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. The lake's 214 acres and 2.2 miles of shoreline put it in the mid-range bucket — large enough for varied use, small enough that watershed inputs reach the whole basin. Louise Lake ranks 22 of 51 in Douglas County — solidly in the upper half of the local distribution.

Zebra mussel presence at Louise Lake means the lake's clarity numbers carry an asterisk — filtered water is not the same as nutrient-poor water. Louise Lake's fishery is anchored by muskellunge, with 18 documented species in total — a destination water for muskie anglers. Public access is available — the lake is on the Minnesota PCA public-access list. The lake has a long ice-out record — 57 observations on file, with a median ice-out around Apr 15. The grade is based on limited monitoring — fewer than three independent measurement years contribute, so future updates may shift the letter.