Pleasant Lake

On the LakeGrade scale Pleasant Lake grades a B, with clarity at 11.0 ft and 20 µg/L of phosphorus placing it above the Minnesota median. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

A TSI near 45 places Pleasant Lake in the mesotrophic band — moderate productivity, with seasonal swings between clearer spring water and richer late-summer conditions. At 74 ft of maximum depth, Pleasant Lake stratifies reliably through the summer — the hypolimnion stays cooler and clearer than the surface layer suggests. Pleasant Lake covers 597 acres alongside 4.2 miles of shoreline — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Among the 64 graded lakes in Wright County, Pleasant Lake sits at rank 17, above the county median.

Pleasant Lake is on the Minnesota infested-waters list for zebra mussels — boaters should follow clean-drain-dry protocols when moving gear to or from the lake. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 15 documented species — a notable draw for Minnesota anglers. A documented public access point at Pleasant 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.