Roger Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Roger Lake pulls an A: clarity at 16.0 ft and phosphorus readings still being added put it in the top bracket for Minnesota.

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. At 64 ft of maximum depth, Roger Lake stratifies reliably through the summer — the hypolimnion stays cooler and clearer than the surface layer suggests. Roger Lake covers 240 acres alongside 2.5 miles of shoreline — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Among the 120 graded lakes in Crow Wing County, Roger Lake ranks 11 — in the top quartile locally.

Roger Lake has no invasive species recorded in Minnesota state databases as of 2022, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. Walleye are documented at Roger Lake, one of 12 fish species on record for the lake. Public access is available — the lake is on the Minnesota PCA public-access list. The lake has a partial ice record — 5 observed ice-outs, centered near Apr 25. 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.