Snail Lake

On the LakeGrade scale Snail Lake grades a B, with clarity at 11.0 ft and 20 µg/L of phosphorus placing it above the Minnesota median. With clarity and phosphorus scored, the sub-grades cluster within a letter of each other, pointing to stable conditions rather than one specific stressor.

A TSI near 45 places Snail Lake in the mesotrophic band — moderate productivity, with seasonal swings between clearer spring water and richer late-summer conditions. 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 158 acres, Snail Lake fits the Minnesota median for monitored lakes, with 2.4 miles of shoreline. Snail Lake ranks 4 of 49 in Ramsey County, putting it in the upper tier of locally monitored lakes.

Snail Lake carries an invasive watermilfoil record — boat-launch decontamination and shoreline care matter more here than at uninfested lakes. The fishery includes walleye among the lake's 11 documented species — a notable draw for Minnesota anglers. A documented public access point at Snail Lake makes the lake usable for shore fishing, paddle craft, and trailered boats. Ice-out has been recorded 13 times at Snail Lake, with a median around Apr 4. 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.