Tamarack Lake

Tamarack Lake pulls a D on the LakeGrade rubric — phosphorus loading and limited clarity hold it below the Minnesota average.

Eutrophic conditions are the baseline here: clarity drops noticeably in late summer, and dissolved oxygen near the bottom can become a concern. The lake bottoms out at 48 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. Tamarack Lake covers 235 acres alongside 4.7 miles of shoreline — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Within the 33 graded lakes of Carlton County, Tamarack Lake sits at rank 28, near the bottom of the county list.

Tamarack Lake has no invasive species recorded in Minnesota state databases as of 2023, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. The fishery includes walleye among the lake's 15 documented species — a notable draw for Minnesota anglers. A documented public access point at Tamarack Lake makes the lake usable for shore fishing, paddle craft, and trailered boats. Ice-out has been recorded 13 times at Tamarack Lake, with a median around 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.