Circle Lily Lake

Circle Lily Lake comes in at a B on the grading rubric — a respectable showing for a Wisconsin lake of its size and depth. Clarity is the limiting factor — phosphorus is reasonable but suspended particles or algal cells keep water transparency below Wisconsin norms.

The lake sits in the mesotrophic zone — the band where most well-managed Wisconsin lakes fall. A maximum depth of 35 ft puts Circle Lily Lake in the middle of Wisconsin's depth distribution. The lake's 218 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. Within Vilas County's 191 graded lakes, Circle Lily Lake ranks 132 — below the local median, though not at the bottom.

Circle Lily Lake has at least one documented invasive species (Rusty Crayfish), so boaters and anglers should observe clean-drain-dry steps when leaving the lake. Walleye are documented at Circle Lily Lake, one of 6 fish species on record for the lake. 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.