Shagawa Lake

Shagawa Lake sits at a C on the grading scale — not impaired, not pristine, with summer measurements that vary year to year.

Mesotrophic conditions dominate at Shagawa Lake: enough nutrients for a healthy fishery, not so much that algal blooms become a chronic problem. A maximum depth of 48 ft puts Shagawa Lake in the middle of Minnesota's depth distribution. With 2,345 acres of surface and 23.4 miles of shoreline, Shagawa Lake is a large water by Minnesota standards — recreational pressure is spread across a long shoreline. Within St. Louis County's 187 graded lakes, Shagawa Lake ranks 113 — below the local median, though not at the bottom.

Shagawa Lake has at least one documented invasive species (spiny waterflea), so boaters and anglers should observe clean-drain-dry steps when leaving the lake. Muskie are on the species list at Shagawa Lake, among the lake's 12 documented fish. A documented public access point at Shagawa Lake makes the lake usable for shore fishing, paddle craft, and trailered boats. Ice-out has been logged at Shagawa Lake more than two dozen times, putting the median around Apr 28 — a useful baseline for tracking climate trends. 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.