Pickeral Lake

Pickeral Lake comes in at a B on the grading rubric — a respectable showing for a Minnesota lake of its size and depth.

The lake sits in the mesotrophic zone — the band where most well-managed Minnesota lakes fall. The lake bottoms out at 37 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. The lake is compact at 20 acres, with 0.8 miles of shoreline and little volume to buffer nutrient inputs. Among the 64 graded lakes in Wright County, Pickeral Lake sits at rank 18, above the county median.

No invasive species are currently listed at Pickeral Lake — the lake remains off the Minnesota infested-waters roster. The state fisheries records do not list documented species for Pickeral Lake, which usually reflects a lack of formal fisheries survey work rather than an empty lake. No formal public access is documented at Pickeral Lake — most use is by shoreline residents and their guests. 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.