Stuart Lake

Stuart Lake sits at the top of the Minnesota PCA grading rubric with an A, a mark reached by the cleanest lakes in Minnesota. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

Trophically, Stuart Lake reads as oligotrophic — nutrient-poor, clear, and ecologically more sensitive to disturbance than richer lakes. The lake bottoms out at 49 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. At 740 acres, Stuart Lake fits the Minnesota median for monitored lakes, with 8.0 miles of shoreline. Within Otter Tail County's 97 graded waters, Stuart Lake sits at rank 12, near the top of the local distribution.

Zebra mussels have been documented at Stuart Lake, which alters the filter-feeding balance and can paradoxically increase water clarity while disrupting the food web. Walleye are documented at Stuart Lake, one of 14 fish species on record for the lake. A documented public access point at Stuart Lake makes the lake usable for shore fishing, paddle craft, and trailered boats. The lake has a partial ice record — 9 observed ice-outs, centered near Apr 10. 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.