Midge Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Midge Lake pulls an A: clarity at 18.0 ft and 20 µg/L of phosphorus put it in the top bracket for Minnesota. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

The lake sits in the mesotrophic zone — the band where most well-managed Minnesota lakes fall. The lake bottoms out at 24 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. Midge Lake covers 546 acres alongside 3.6 miles of shoreline — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Midge Lake sits at rank 41 of 77 in Hubbard County, in the lower half of the local distribution.

No invasive species are currently listed at Midge Lake — the lake remains off the Minnesota infested-waters roster. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 11 documented species — a notable draw for Minnesota anglers. A documented public access point at Midge Lake makes the lake usable for shore fishing, paddle craft, and trailered boats. The lake has a long ice-out record — 43 observations on file, with a median ice-out around Apr 17. 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.