Pokegama Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Pokegama Lake pulls an A: clarity at 57.4 ft and phosphorus readings still being added 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.

A TSI value of 19 puts Pokegama Lake in the oligotrophic range, where biological productivity stays low and the water column remains clear. Pokegama Lake is unusually deep for Minnesota at 112 ft, which buffers the lake against summer warming and helps the deep water stay oxygenated. With 6,721 acres of surface and 57.2 miles of shoreline, Pokegama Lake is a large water by Minnesota standards — recreational pressure is spread across a long shoreline. Among the 141 graded lakes in Itasca County, Pokegama Lake ranks 31 — in the top quartile locally.

Zebra mussel presence at Pokegama Lake means the lake's clarity numbers carry an asterisk — filtered water is not the same as nutrient-poor water. Muskie are on the species list at Pokegama Lake, alongside the lake's 19 other documented fish. Public access is available — the lake is on the Minnesota PCA public-access list. The lake has a long ice-out record — 69 observations on file, with a median ice-out around Apr 27. 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.