Elsie Lake

Elsie Lake earns an A — water clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate among the best monitored waters in Vilas County. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

A TSI value of 23 puts Elsie Lake in the oligotrophic range, where biological productivity stays low and the water column remains clear. Elsie Lake reaches 22 ft at its deepest point — typical for Wisconsin mid-sized lakes, with seasonal stratification but limited cold-water refuge. Elsie Lake is small — 47 acres alongside partial shoreline records — which makes it sensitive to even modest changes in watershed runoff or recreational pressure. Within Vilas County's 202 graded lakes, Elsie Lake ranks 145 — below the local median, though not at the bottom.

Elsie Lake has no invasive species recorded in Wisconsin state databases as of 2025, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. Bass fishing is part of the appeal: the species list runs to 2, anchored by largemouth and/or smallmouth bass. 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.