Boot Lake

Boot Lake comes in at a B on the grading rubric — a respectable showing for a Wisconsin lake of its size and depth. 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.

Mesotrophic conditions dominate at Boot Lake: enough nutrients for a healthy fishery, not so much that algal blooms become a chronic problem. The lake bottoms out at 15 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. At 286 acres, Boot Lake fits the Wisconsin median for monitored lakes, with partial shoreline records. Boot Lake ranks 173 of 202 in Vilas County — at the lower end of the locally monitored distribution.

Eurasian watermilfoil has been documented at Boot Lake, requiring shoreline management to keep dense mats from crowding native vegetation. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 5 documented species — a notable draw for Wisconsin anglers. Public access is available — the lake is on the Wisconsin DNR public-access list. 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.