Wakefield Lake

Wakefield Lake earns a C — middle-of-the-pack water quality, with one or two parameters dragging the average down from a stronger grade.

Mesotrophic conditions dominate at Wakefield Lake: enough nutrients for a healthy fishery, not so much that algal blooms become a chronic problem. The lake's 69 ft maximum depth is in the upper tier for Minnesota — deep enough for cold-water fish to find refuge in summer. The lake's 164 acres and 3.4 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 Aitkin County's 53 graded lakes, Wakefield Lake ranks 32 — below the local median, though not at the bottom.

No invasive species are currently listed at Wakefield Lake — the lake remains off the Minnesota infested-waters roster. The fishery includes walleye among the lake's 10 documented species — a notable draw for Minnesota anglers. The lake lacks a documented public access point, so visitor use is limited. 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.