Kelly Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Kelly Lake pulls an A: clarity at 34.5 ft and 14 µg/L of phosphorus put it in the top bracket for Wisconsin. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

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. Kelly Lake reaches 41 ft at its deepest point — typical for Wisconsin mid-sized lakes, with seasonal stratification but limited cold-water refuge. Kelly Lake covers 367 acres alongside partial shoreline records — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Kelly Lake ranks 26 of 66 in Oconto County — solidly in the upper half of the local distribution.

Zebra mussels have been documented at Kelly Lake, which alters the filter-feeding balance and can paradoxically increase water clarity while disrupting the food web. Walleye are documented at Kelly Lake, one of 4 fish species on record for the lake. 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.