Little Trout Lake

Little Trout Lake sits at the top of the Wisconsin DNR grading rubric with an A, a mark reached by the cleanest lakes in Wisconsin. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

The lake sits in the mesotrophic zone — the band where most well-managed Wisconsin lakes fall. Little Trout Lake is unusually deep for Wisconsin at 98 ft, which buffers the lake against summer warming and helps the deep water stay oxygenated. With 1,007 acres of surface and partial shoreline records, Little Trout Lake is a large water by Wisconsin standards — recreational pressure is spread across a long shoreline. Within Vilas County's 191 graded waters, Little Trout Lake sits at rank 45, near the top of the local distribution.

No invasive species are currently listed at Little Trout Lake — the lake remains off the Wisconsin infested-waters roster. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 6 documented species — a notable draw for Wisconsin anglers. 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.