Friess Lake

Friess Lake carries a solid B grade — strong on most parameters, with measurements that hold up well across the summer season. High phosphorus is the leading drag on the score — likely from upland agriculture, lawn runoff, or in-lake sediment release.

A TSI near 46 places Friess Lake in the mesotrophic band — moderate productivity, with seasonal swings between clearer spring water and richer late-summer conditions. Friess Lake reaches 48 ft at its deepest point — typical for Wisconsin mid-sized lakes, with seasonal stratification but limited cold-water refuge. The lake's 121 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. Friess Lake ranks 13 of 15 in Washington County — at the lower end of the locally monitored distribution.

Friess Lake is on the Wisconsin infested-waters list for zebra mussels — boaters should follow clean-drain-dry protocols when moving gear to or from the lake. Walleye are documented at Friess Lake, one of 4 fish species on record for the lake. 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.