Little Pike Lake

Little Pike Lake earns an A — water clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate among the best monitored waters in Iron County. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

Trophically, Little Pike Lake reads as oligotrophic — nutrient-poor, clear, and ecologically more sensitive to disturbance than richer lakes. A maximum depth of 20 ft puts Little Pike Lake in the middle of Wisconsin's depth distribution. At 96 acres, Little Pike Lake sits below the Wisconsin median: a small water where shoreline activity has an outsized effect on water quality. Little Pike Lake ranks 26 of 34 in Iron County — at the lower end of the locally monitored distribution.

An invasive species record — Banded Mystery Snail — has been logged at Little Pike Lake; Wisconsin DNR maintains the official infested-waters list. Walleye are documented at Little Pike Lake, one of 4 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.