What is the difference between Chippewa Flowage Lake and Chippewa Flowage -North of Cranberry Bars Lake?

Chippewa Flowage Lake (Sawyer County) holds Grade C with 6.9 ft clarity and 92 ft max depth. Chippewa Flowage -North of Cranberry Bars Lake (Sawyer County) holds Grade C with 4.9 ft clarity and 92 ft max depth.

Is Chippewa Flowage Lake or Chippewa Flowage -North of Cranberry Bars Lake better for fishing?

Chippewa Flowage Lake has 8 documented fish species. Chippewa Flowage -North of Cranberry Bars Lake has 8. The lake with more species and better water clarity (Secchi depth) generally supports more diverse and successful fishing.

Chippewa Flowage Lake vs Chippewa Flowage -North of Cranberry Bars Lake

Water quality, depth, fish species, and recreation comparison.

Chippewa Flowage Lake and Chippewa Flowage -North of Cranberry Bars Lake both received the same overall water quality grade of C (Fair). Both are in Sawyer County, Wisconsin.

Reviewed by LakeQuality Editorial Team · Updated Aug 2, 2026

Chippewa Flowage Lake and Chippewa Flowage -North of Cranberry Bars Lake are both in Wisconsin — a same-state head-to-head where the comparison comes down to lake-specific differences in depth, watershed, and monitoring history rather than the broader state-level water-quality regime. The grades are close: Chippewa Flowage Lake (C) and Chippewa Flowage -North of Cranberry Bars Lake (C) are within one letter of each other on the LakeGrade rubric. The per-parameter sub-grades below will show where the small differences actually live.

With grades this close, the choice between the two lakes turns on non-water-quality factors: depth, fish species, public access, distance from home. The per-lake pages below cover all of those.

Chippewa Flowage Lake

Sawyer County, Wisconsin

Moderate clarity, visible to about 6.9 ft.

Chippewa Flowage -North of Cranberry Bars Lake

Sawyer County, Wisconsin

Murky, only visible to about 4.9 ft.

Side-by-Side Metrics

Metric	Chippewa Flowage Lake	Chippewa Flowage -North of Cranberry Bars Lake
Overall Grade	C (Fair)	C (Fair)
Water Clarity	6.9 ft	4.9 ft
Phosphorus	26 µg/L	32 µg/L
Chlorophyll-a (Algae)	7 µg/L	10 µg/L
Maximum Depth	92 ft	92 ft
Surface Area	14,593 acres	14,593 acres
Public Access	Yes	Yes
Fish Species	8	8
Trophic State	eutrophic	eutrophic

Bold value = better for that metric (lower phosphorus / chlorophyll = cleaner; higher Secchi / depth / species count = better).

Verdict

Both lakes earn the same Grade C. The tiebreakers come down to clarity (Chippewa Flowage Lake: 6.9 ft, Chippewa Flowage -North of Cranberry Bars Lake: 4.9 ft) and what you want from the lake. Chippewa Flowage Lake matches its peer on species count.

Full Chippewa Flowage Lake report →Full Chippewa Flowage -North of Cranberry Bars Lake report →All Sawyer County lakes →Cleanest lakes in Wisconsin →

Source: EPA National Aquatic Resource Surveys, 2026.