Part of: Lake Nokomis Park

Lake Nokomis is a popular Minneapolis lake for its variety of recreation opportunities including swimming, sailing, fishing, canoeing and boat and bike rentals. The lake was originally just five feet deep but was dredged in 1914 to provide more open water and parkland for visitors. Lake Nokomis scores “excellent” in aesthetics, public health, and recreation access. Habitat quality and water clarity are scored “good.” Algae levels tend to limit water clarity at Nokomis which prevents light from penetrating deep into the water leading to reduced plant growth in the lake. A decrease in algal biomass in 2014, possibly due to high water levels and increased flushing, contributed to increased water clarity in Nokomis and an “excellent” water clarity score.

Ongoing research is underway to understand the abundance, reproduction, and movement patterns of common carp in Lake Nokomis. The study involves implanting common carp with PIT tags, which are small tracking devices less than a centimeter long, enabling the tracking of carp movements within the lake and into tributaries. These PIT tags are not visible when observing the fish; a specialized antenna is required to detect them. Fishing for common carp remains allowed during the research process, subject to normal fishing regulations.

Water Clarity

About Secchi Disk Readings

To measure water transparency with a Secchi disk, the disk is lowered from the shaded side of a boat until it cannot be seen. The depth of the water is recorded at the point where the disk reappears upon raising it from its original depth beyond visibility. It is important to remember that the Secchi measurement is a simple, approximate measurement of water clarity and can be influenced by various factors such as time of day, reader’s eyesight, water color and suspended particles in the water. Therefore, Secchi disk readings should be used as a comparative tool to determine trends between lakes and over time.

  • Increased water clarity may be due to reduced nutrient inputs, seasonal algal cycles, decreased sediment inputs, and zooplankton grazing on algae.
  • Decreased water clarity may be due to large algal blooms, increased soil erosion inputs, wind circulation of sediments and nutrients, stormwater inputs, or a decrease in zooplankton.

Secchi readings for the lakes are done during the regular lake sampling schedule, with some lakes sampled every other year. Current Secchi readings taken during lake sampling can be found on the Lake Water Quality Map.

Beaches

LAURI

Lake Aesthetic and User Recreation Index (LAURI)

Lake Nokomis 2025 LAURI readings. Aesthetics - good, water clarity - excellent, public health - poor, habitat quality - good, recreation access - excellent.

The Lake Aesthetic and User Recreation Index (LAURI) was designed to give recreational users an easily understandable graphical source of information about conditions affecting their use of city lakes. The goal is to have an accurate, science based and easily understandable recreational indicator for the public. The LAURI has the five following indices: aesthetic considerations, water clarity, public health, habitat quality, and recreational access. For each of the five indices, the LAURI calculates a value that is then considered poor, good, or excellent.

Click here to view more information on LAURI

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