Curtis Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Curtis Lake pulls an A: clarity at 14.4 ft and 20 µg/L of phosphorus put it in the top bracket for Wisconsin. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

A TSI near 43 places Curtis Lake in the mesotrophic band — moderate productivity, with seasonal swings between clearer spring water and richer late-summer conditions. A maximum depth of 41 ft puts Curtis Lake in the middle of Wisconsin's depth distribution. Curtis Lake is small — 35 acres alongside partial shoreline records — which makes it sensitive to even modest changes in watershed runoff or recreational pressure. Within Waushara County's 32 graded lakes, Curtis Lake ranks 19 — below the local median, though not at the bottom.

An invasive species record — Banded Mystery Snail — has been logged at Curtis Lake; Wisconsin DNR maintains the official infested-waters list. Bass fishing is part of the appeal: the species list runs to 3, anchored by largemouth and/or smallmouth bass. 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.