Pelican Lake

Pelican Lake earns a C — middle-of-the-pack water quality, with one or two parameters dragging the average down from a stronger grade. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

Mesotrophic conditions dominate at Pelican Lake: enough nutrients for a healthy fishery, not so much that algal blooms become a chronic problem. Pelican Lake reaches 38 ft at its deepest point — typical for Minnesota mid-sized lakes, with seasonal stratification but limited cold-water refuge. At 11,546 acres, Pelican Lake is one of the larger lakes in St. Louis County, with 55.7 miles of shoreline supporting multiple distinct use patterns. Pelican Lake ranks 92 of 187 in St. Louis County — solidly in the upper half of the local distribution.

No invasive species are currently listed at Pelican 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 Pelican Lake makes the lake usable for shore fishing, paddle craft, and trailered boats. Ice-out has been logged at Pelican Lake more than two dozen times, putting the median around Apr 26 — a useful baseline for tracking climate trends. 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.