Silver Lake

Silver Lake earns an A — water clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate among the best monitored waters in Otter Tail County. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

A TSI near 43 places Silver Lake in the mesotrophic band — moderate productivity, with seasonal swings between clearer spring water and richer late-summer conditions. A maximum depth of 43 ft puts Silver Lake in the middle of Minnesota's depth distribution. Silver Lake covers 529 acres alongside 4.1 miles of shoreline — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Silver Lake ranks 32 of 97 in Otter Tail County — solidly in the upper half of the local distribution.

Zebra mussel presence at Silver Lake means the lake's clarity numbers carry an asterisk — filtered water is not the same as nutrient-poor water. Walleye are documented at Silver Lake, one of 13 fish species on record for the lake. A documented public access point at Silver Lake makes the lake usable for shore fishing, paddle craft, and trailered boats. The lake has a partial ice record — 14 observed ice-outs, centered near Apr 13. 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.