Manuella Lake

On the LakeGrade scale Manuella Lake grades a B, with clarity at 10.0 ft and phosphorus readings still being added placing it above the Minnesota median. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

Mesotrophic conditions dominate at Manuella Lake: enough nutrients for a healthy fishery, not so much that algal blooms become a chronic problem. At 51 ft of maximum depth, Manuella Lake stratifies reliably through the summer — the hypolimnion stays cooler and clearer than the surface layer suggests. The lake's 293 acres and 3.0 miles of shoreline put it in the mid-range bucket — large enough for varied use, small enough that watershed inputs reach the whole basin. Within Meeker County's 23 graded waters, Manuella Lake sits at rank 2, near the top of the local distribution.

Manuella Lake carries an invasive watermilfoil record — boat-launch decontamination and shoreline care matter more here than at uninfested lakes. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 16 documented species — a notable draw for Minnesota anglers. A documented public access point at Manuella Lake makes the lake usable for shore fishing, paddle craft, and trailered boats. Ice-out has been recorded 11 times at Manuella Lake, with a median around Apr 11. 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.