Bass Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Bass Lake pulls an A: clarity at 12.0 ft and 12 µg/L of phosphorus put it in the top bracket for Wisconsin. With clarity and phosphorus scored, the sub-grades cluster within a letter of each other, pointing to stable conditions rather than one specific stressor.

The lake sits in the mesotrophic zone — the band where most well-managed Wisconsin lakes fall. A maximum depth of 16 ft puts Bass Lake in the middle of Wisconsin's depth distribution. Bass Lake is small — 22 acres alongside partial shoreline records — which makes it sensitive to even modest changes in watershed runoff or recreational pressure. Within Florence County's 39 graded waters, Bass Lake sits at rank 8, near the top of the local distribution.

Eurasian watermilfoil has been documented at Bass Lake, requiring shoreline management to keep dense mats from crowding native vegetation. The fishery is bass-led, with 3 documented species across the lake's records. The grade is based on limited monitoring — fewer than three independent measurement years contribute, so future updates may shift the letter.