Love Lake

Love Lake sits at a C on the grading scale — not impaired, not pristine, with summer measurements that vary year to year. 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.

Mesotrophic conditions dominate at Love Lake: enough nutrients for a healthy fishery, not so much that algal blooms become a chronic problem. The lake bottoms out at 27 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. Love Lake is small — 79 acres alongside 1.8 miles of shoreline — which makes it sensitive to even modest changes in watershed runoff or recreational pressure. Within the 123 graded lakes of Crow Wing County, Love Lake sits at rank 115, near the bottom of the county list.

Love Lake is on the Minnesota infested-waters list for zebra mussels — boaters should follow clean-drain-dry protocols when moving gear to or from the lake. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 14 documented species — a notable draw for Minnesota anglers. No formal public access is documented at Love Lake — most use is by shoreline residents and their guests. The grade is based on limited monitoring — fewer than three independent measurement years contribute, so future updates may shift the letter.