Rock Lake

Rock Lake earns a C — middle-of-the-pack water quality, with one or two parameters dragging the average down from a stronger grade. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

Mesotrophic conditions dominate at Rock Lake: enough nutrients for a healthy fishery, not so much that algal blooms become a chronic problem. The lake bottoms out at 37 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. The lake's 183 acres and 3.0 miles of shoreline put it in the mid-range bucket — large enough for varied use, small enough that watershed inputs reach the whole basin. Among the 64 graded lakes in Wright County, Rock Lake sits at rank 25, above the county median.

Eurasian watermilfoil is established at Rock Lake, which can dampen recreational access and pressure the native plant community. Walleye are documented at Rock Lake, one of 15 fish species on record for the lake. A documented public access point at Rock 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.