Pillager Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Pillager Lake pulls an A: clarity at 15.1 ft and 7 µg/L of phosphorus put it in the top bracket for Minnesota. With clarity and phosphorus scored, the sub-grades cluster within a letter of each other, pointing to stable conditions rather than one specific stressor.

A TSI value of 35 puts Pillager Lake in the oligotrophic range, where biological productivity stays low and the water column remains clear. The lake bottoms out at 39 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. Pillager Lake covers 205 acres alongside 2.4 miles of shoreline — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Pillager Lake ranks 32 of 132 in Cass County, putting it in the upper tier of locally monitored lakes.

No invasive species are currently listed at Pillager Lake — the lake remains off the Minnesota infested-waters roster. The fishery is bass-led, with 12 documented species across the lake's records. A documented public access point at Pillager 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.