Hilts Lake

Hilts Lake sits at the top of the Wisconsin DNR grading rubric with an A, a mark reached by the cleanest lakes in Wisconsin. Sub-grades cluster within a single letter of each other, which usually means the lake is in stable trophic balance rather than fighting one specific stressor.

A TSI value of 22 puts Hilts Lake in the oligotrophic range, where biological productivity stays low and the water column remains clear. The lake's 64 ft maximum depth is in the upper tier for Wisconsin — deep enough for cold-water fish to find refuge in summer. Hilts Lake is small — 61 acres alongside partial shoreline records — which makes it sensitive to even modest changes in watershed runoff or recreational pressure. Hilts Lake ranks 7 of 21 in Lincoln County — solidly in the upper half of the local distribution.

An invasive species record — Chinese Mystery Snail — has been logged at Hilts 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.