Wilson Lake

Wilson Lake earns an A — water clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate among the best monitored waters in Lake County. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

The lake sits in the mesotrophic zone — the band where most well-managed Minnesota lakes fall. At 53 ft of maximum depth, Wilson Lake stratifies reliably through the summer — the hypolimnion stays cooler and clearer than the surface layer suggests. Wilson Lake covers 650 acres alongside 7.6 miles of shoreline — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Within Lake County's 142 graded waters, Wilson Lake sits at rank 35, near the top of the local distribution.

No invasive species are currently listed at Wilson Lake — the lake remains off the Minnesota infested-waters roster. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 4 documented species — a notable draw for Minnesota anglers. Public access is available — the lake is on the Minnesota PCA public-access list. The lake has a partial ice record — 12 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.