Ross Lake

Ross Lake earns a C — middle-of-the-pack water quality, with one or two parameters dragging the average down from a stronger grade. Clarity is the limiting factor — phosphorus is reasonable but suspended particles or algal cells keep water transparency below Minnesota norms.

At a TSI of 55, Ross Lake reads as eutrophic — nutrient-rich enough that summer algal growth and reduced clarity are expected, not unusual. The lake bottoms out at 30 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. At 492 acres, Ross Lake fits the Minnesota median for monitored lakes, with 6.6 miles of shoreline. Within the 120 graded lakes of Crow Wing County, Ross Lake sits at rank 111, near the bottom of the county list.

No invasive species are currently listed at Ross Lake — the lake remains off the Minnesota infested-waters roster. Walleye are documented at Ross Lake, one of 13 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 long ice-out record — 28 observations on file, with a median ice-out around Apr 14. 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.