Mccullough Lake

Mccullough Lake earns an A — water clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate among the best monitored waters in Vilas County. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

Trophically, Mccullough Lake reads as oligotrophic — nutrient-poor, clear, and ecologically more sensitive to disturbance than richer lakes. The lake bottoms out at 27 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. At 221 acres, Mccullough Lake fits the Wisconsin median for monitored lakes, with partial shoreline records. Among the 202 graded lakes in Vilas County, Mccullough Lake sits at rank 86, above the county median.

An invasive species record — Rusty Crayfish — has been logged at Mccullough Lake; Wisconsin DNR maintains the official infested-waters list. Walleye are documented at Mccullough Lake, one of 5 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.