Bass Lake

Bass Lake earns an A — water clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate among the best monitored waters in Lincoln County. Sub-grades cluster within a single letter of each other, which usually means the lake is in stable trophic balance rather than fighting one specific stressor.

The lake's low TSI puts it in oligotrophic territory — the cleanest of the four trophic classes, but also the most vulnerable to nutrient-driven shifts. The lake bottoms out at 40 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. At 106 acres, Bass Lake fits the Wisconsin median for monitored lakes, with partial shoreline records. Among the 21 graded lakes in Lincoln County, Bass Lake ranks 3 — in the top quartile locally.

An invasive species record — Chinese Mystery Snail — has been logged at Bass Lake; Wisconsin DNR maintains the official infested-waters list. The fishery is bass-led, with 4 documented species across the lake's records. 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.