Crawling Stone Lake

Crawling Stone Lake earns an A — water clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate among the best monitored waters in Vilas County. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

A TSI value of 37 puts Crawling Stone Lake in the oligotrophic range, where biological productivity stays low and the water column remains clear. Crawling Stone Lake is unusually deep for Wisconsin at 87 ft, which buffers the lake against summer warming and helps the deep water stay oxygenated. At 1,483 acres, Crawling Stone Lake is one of the larger lakes in Vilas County, with partial shoreline records supporting multiple distinct use patterns. Among the 191 graded lakes in Vilas County, Crawling Stone Lake ranks 21 — in the top quartile locally.

Crawling Stone Lake has at least one documented invasive species (Rusty Crayfish), so boaters and anglers should observe clean-drain-dry steps when leaving the lake. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 6 documented species — a notable draw for Wisconsin anglers. 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.