Kentuck Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Kentuck Lake pulls an A: clarity at 33.5 ft and 24 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.

A TSI value of 38 puts Kentuck 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. Kentuck Lake covers 1,001 acres alongside partial shoreline records, large enough that conditions can vary meaningfully between bays. Within the 202 graded lakes of Vilas County, Kentuck Lake sits at rank 154, near the bottom of the county list.

Eurasian watermilfoil has been documented at Kentuck Lake, requiring shoreline management to keep dense mats from crowding native vegetation. Walleye are documented at Kentuck Lake, one of 5 fish species on record for the lake. A documented public access point at Kentuck Lake makes the lake usable for shore fishing, paddle craft, and trailered boats. 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.