Lake Emily

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

Mesotrophic conditions dominate at Lake Emily: enough nutrients for a healthy fishery, not so much that algal blooms become a chronic problem. A maximum depth of just 10 ft means sediment-bound phosphorus releases back into the water column whenever wind stirs the bottom — a classic shallow-lake dynamic. Lake Emily covers 268 acres alongside partial shoreline records — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Among the 3 graded lakes in Dodge County, Lake Emily sits at rank 1, above the county median.

Zebra mussels have been documented at Lake Emily, which alters the filter-feeding balance and can paradoxically increase water clarity while disrupting the food web. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 4 documented species — a notable draw for Wisconsin anglers. 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.