Pickerel Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Pickerel Lake pulls an A: clarity at 16.1 ft and 8 µg/L of phosphorus put it in the top bracket for Minnesota. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

Trophically, Pickerel Lake reads as oligotrophic — nutrient-poor, clear, and ecologically more sensitive to disturbance than richer lakes. At 60 ft of maximum depth, Pickerel Lake stratifies reliably through the summer — the hypolimnion stays cooler and clearer than the surface layer suggests. Pickerel Lake covers 143 acres alongside 2.8 miles of shoreline — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Pickerel Lake ranks 2 of 40 in Clearwater County, putting it in the upper tier of locally monitored lakes.

Pickerel Lake has no invasive species recorded in Minnesota state databases as of 2024, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. Walleye are documented at Pickerel Lake, one of 12 fish species on record for the lake. A documented public access point at Pickerel 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.