Katinka Lake

Katinka Lake earns an A — water clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate among the best monitored waters in Vilas County. 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.

The lake's low TSI puts it in oligotrophic territory — the cleanest of the four trophic classes, but also the most vulnerable to nutrient-driven shifts. Katinka Lake is unusually deep for Wisconsin at 60 ft, which buffers the lake against summer warming and helps the deep water stay oxygenated. The lake's 170 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. Among the 191 graded lakes in Vilas County, Katinka Lake ranks 19 — in the top quartile locally.

No invasive species are currently listed at Katinka Lake — the lake remains off the Wisconsin infested-waters roster. Walleye are documented at Katinka Lake, one of 5 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.