Side Lake

Side Lake earns an A — water clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate among the best monitored waters in St. Louis County. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

A TSI near 41 places Side Lake in the mesotrophic band — moderate productivity, with seasonal swings between clearer spring water and richer late-summer conditions. The lake bottoms out at 32 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. Side Lake covers 368 acres alongside 4.0 miles of shoreline — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Among the 187 graded lakes in St. Louis County, Side Lake ranks 39 — in the top quartile locally.

Side Lake has no invasive species recorded in Minnesota state databases as of 2024, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. Walleye are documented at Side Lake, one of 15 fish species on record for the lake. A documented public access point at Side Lake makes the lake usable for shore fishing, paddle craft, and trailered boats. Ice-out has been recorded 21 times at Side Lake, with a median around 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.