Trout Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Trout Lake pulls an A: clarity at 19.0 ft and 9 µg/L of phosphorus put it in the top bracket for Minnesota. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

The lake's low TSI puts it in oligotrophic territory — the cleanest of the four trophic classes, but also the most vulnerable to nutrient-driven shifts. At 77 ft of maximum depth, Trout Lake stratifies reliably through the summer — the hypolimnion stays cooler and clearer than the surface layer suggests. At 259 acres, Trout Lake fits the Minnesota median for monitored lakes, with 3.3 miles of shoreline. Among the 128 graded lakes in Cook County, Trout Lake ranks 5 — in the top quartile locally.

Trout Lake has at least one documented invasive species (spiny waterflea), so boaters and anglers should observe clean-drain-dry steps when leaving the lake. 6 fish species are documented at Trout Lake, a mixed warm-water community typical for Minnesota lakes of this size. Public access is available — the lake is on the Minnesota PCA public-access list. Ice-out has been recorded 8 times at Trout Lake, with a median around May 6. 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.