Kelly Lake

Kelly Lake carries a solid B grade — strong on most parameters, with measurements that hold up well across the summer season.

A TSI value of 39 puts Kelly Lake in the oligotrophic range, where biological productivity stays low and the water column remains clear. The lake bottoms out at 17 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. Kelly Lake is small — 56 acres alongside partial shoreline records — which makes it sensitive to even modest changes in watershed runoff or recreational pressure. Within Bayfield County's 52 graded lakes, Kelly Lake ranks 34 — below the local median, though not at the bottom.

Kelly Lake has no invasive species recorded in Wisconsin state databases as of 2025, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. Walleye are documented at Kelly Lake, one of 3 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.