Murphy Lake

Murphy Lake comes in at a B on the grading rubric — a respectable showing for a Minnesota lake of its size and depth. The lake's weakest score is on Secchi depth — the water looks more turbid than its phosphorus number alone would predict.

The lake sits in the mesotrophic zone — the band where most well-managed Minnesota lakes fall. A maximum depth of 24 ft puts Murphy Lake in the middle of Minnesota's depth distribution. At 354 acres, Murphy Lake fits the Minnesota median for monitored lakes, with 5.2 miles of shoreline. Murphy Lake ranks 82 of 187 in St. Louis County — solidly in the upper half of the local distribution.

Murphy Lake has no invasive species recorded in Minnesota state databases as of 2020, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 10 documented species — a notable draw for Minnesota anglers. A documented public access point at Murphy 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.