Inch Lake

Inch 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 Inch Lake in the oligotrophic range, where biological productivity stays low and the water column remains clear. The lake bottoms out at 40 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. Inch Lake is small — 31 acres alongside partial shoreline records — which makes it sensitive to even modest changes in watershed runoff or recreational pressure. Within Bayfield County's 55 graded lakes, Inch Lake ranks 36 — below the local median, though not at the bottom.

No invasive species are currently listed at Inch Lake — the lake remains off the Wisconsin infested-waters roster. The fishery is bass-led, with 2 documented species across the lake's records. 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.