O'Dowd Lake

On the scoring rubric O'Dowd Lake grades a D: clarity at 5.0 ft and phosphorus readings still being added keep it in the lower bracket for Scott County.

Eutrophic conditions are the baseline here: clarity drops noticeably in late summer, and dissolved oxygen near the bottom can become a concern. The lake bottoms out at 22 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. The lake's 301 acres and 9.3 miles of shoreline put it in the mid-range bucket — large enough for varied use, small enough that watershed inputs reach the whole basin. O'Dowd Lake sits at rank 11 of 17 in Scott County, in the lower half of the local distribution.

O'Dowd Lake carries an invasive watermilfoil record — boat-launch decontamination and shoreline care matter more here than at uninfested lakes. The fishery includes walleye among the lake's 10 documented species — a notable draw for Minnesota anglers. Public access is available — the lake is on the Minnesota PCA public-access list. Ice-out has been recorded 6 times at O'Dowd Lake, with a median around Apr 3. 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.