Lake Emily

Lake Emily earns a C — middle-of-the-pack water quality, with one or two parameters dragging the average down from a stronger grade. With clarity and phosphorus scored, the sub-grades cluster within a letter of each other, pointing to stable conditions rather than one specific stressor.

Eutrophic conditions are the baseline here: clarity drops noticeably in late summer, and dissolved oxygen near the bottom can become a concern. 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 among the lake's 4 documented species — a notable draw for Wisconsin anglers. The grade is based on limited monitoring — fewer than three independent measurement years contribute, so future updates may shift the letter.