Carlin Lake

Carlin Lake sits at the top of the Wisconsin DNR grading rubric with an A, a mark reached by the cleanest lakes in Wisconsin. 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.

A TSI value of 31 puts Carlin Lake in the oligotrophic range, where biological productivity stays low and the water column remains clear. A maximum depth of 36 ft puts Carlin Lake in the middle of Wisconsin's depth distribution. The lake's 155 acres and partial shoreline records put it in the mid-range bucket — large enough for varied use, small enough that watershed inputs reach the whole basin. Among the 191 graded lakes in Vilas County, Carlin Lake ranks 20 — in the top quartile locally.

No invasive species are currently listed at Carlin Lake — the lake remains off the Wisconsin infested-waters roster. The fishery is bass-led, with 3 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.