Buskey Bay Lake

Buskey Bay Lake sits at the top of the Wisconsin DNR grading rubric with an A, a mark reached by the cleanest lakes in Wisconsin. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

A TSI value of 16 puts Buskey Bay Lake in the oligotrophic range, where biological productivity stays low and the water column remains clear. Buskey Bay Lake is unusually deep for Wisconsin at 51 ft, which buffers the lake against summer warming and helps the deep water stay oxygenated. Buskey Bay Lake is small — 88 acres alongside partial shoreline records — which makes it sensitive to even modest changes in watershed runoff or recreational pressure. Buskey Bay Lake sits at rank 31 of 55 in Bayfield County, in the lower half of the local distribution.

Buskey Bay Lake carries an invasive watermilfoil record — boat-launch decontamination and shoreline care matter more here than at uninfested lakes. Walleye are documented at Buskey Bay Lake, one of 6 fish species on record for the lake. A documented public access point at Buskey Bay Lake makes the lake usable for shore fishing, paddle craft, and trailered boats. 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.