Vermillion Lake

On the LakeGrade scale Vermillion Lake grades a B, with clarity at 7.1 ft and 26 µg/L of phosphorus placing it above the Minnesota median. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

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 27 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. The lake's 410 acres and 5.0 miles of shoreline put it in the mid-range bucket — large enough for varied use, small enough that watershed inputs reach the whole basin. Within the 133 graded lakes of Cass County, Vermillion Lake sits at rank 122, near the bottom of the county list.

No invasive species are currently listed at Vermillion Lake — the lake remains off the Minnesota infested-waters roster. Walleye are documented at Vermillion Lake, one of 14 fish species on record for the lake. A documented public access point at Vermillion Lake makes the lake usable for shore fishing, paddle craft, and trailered boats. The lake has a partial ice record — 7 observed ice-outs, centered near Apr 29. 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.