Net Lake

On the scoring rubric Net Lake grades a D: clarity at 3.0 ft and 33 µg/L of phosphorus keep it in the lower bracket for Pine County. The lake's weakest score is on Secchi depth — the water looks more turbid than its phosphorus number alone would predict.

A TSI in the eutrophic range signals a lake doing what nutrient-loaded waters do — supporting an active algal community at the cost of clear water. A maximum depth of 15 ft puts Net Lake in the middle of Minnesota's depth distribution. Net Lake covers 138 acres alongside 2.7 miles of shoreline — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Within the 19 graded lakes of Pine County, Net Lake sits at rank 16, near the bottom of the county list.

Net Lake has no invasive species recorded in Minnesota state databases as of 2024, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. The fishery is bass-led, with 8 documented species across the lake's records. The lake lacks a documented public access point, so visitor use is limited. The lake has a partial ice record — 5 observed ice-outs, centered near Apr 18. 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.