Pleasant Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Pleasant Lake pulls an A: clarity at 15.4 ft and 10 µg/L of phosphorus put it in the top bracket for Minnesota. Sub-grades cluster within a single letter of each other, which usually means the lake is in stable trophic balance rather than fighting one specific stressor.

The lake's low TSI puts it in oligotrophic territory — the cleanest of the four trophic classes, but also the most vulnerable to nutrient-driven shifts. The lake's 72 ft maximum depth is in the upper tier for Minnesota — deep enough for cold-water fish to find refuge in summer. With 1,099 acres of surface and 10.1 miles of shoreline, Pleasant Lake is a large water by Minnesota standards — recreational pressure is spread across a long shoreline. Among the 133 graded lakes in Cass County, Pleasant Lake ranks 14 — in the top quartile locally.

Pleasant 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 Pleasant Lake, one of 15 fish species on record for the lake. A documented public access point at Pleasant Lake makes the lake usable for shore fishing, paddle craft, and trailered boats. Ice-out has been recorded 14 times at Pleasant Lake, with a median around Apr 22. 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.