Rose Lake

Rose Lake sits at the top of the Minnesota PCA grading rubric with an A, a mark reached by the cleanest lakes in Minnesota. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

Trophically, Rose Lake reads as oligotrophic — nutrient-poor, clear, and ecologically more sensitive to disturbance than richer lakes. The lake's 137 ft maximum depth is in the upper tier for Minnesota — deep enough for cold-water fish to find refuge in summer. At 1,200 acres, Rose Lake is one of the larger lakes in Otter Tail County, with 9.7 miles of shoreline supporting multiple distinct use patterns. Within Otter Tail County's 97 graded waters, Rose Lake sits at rank 17, near the top of the local distribution.

Zebra mussel presence at Rose Lake means the lake's clarity numbers carry an asterisk — filtered water is not the same as nutrient-poor water. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 17 documented species — a notable draw for Minnesota anglers. A documented public access point at Rose Lake makes the lake usable for shore fishing, paddle craft, and trailered boats. Ice-out has been recorded 5 times at Rose Lake, with a median around Apr 23. 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.