Mud Lake

Mud Lake pulls a D on the LakeGrade rubric — phosphorus loading and limited clarity hold it below the Wisconsin average. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

At a TSI of 60, Mud Lake reads as eutrophic — nutrient-rich enough that summer algal growth and reduced clarity are expected, not unusual. At only 12 ft deep, Mud Lake is shallow — wind keeps the water column mixed and sediment resuspension drives phosphorus levels harder to manage. The lake is compact at 43 acres, with partial shoreline records and little volume to buffer nutrient inputs. Mud Lake ranks 77 of 77 in Polk County — at the lower end of the locally monitored distribution.

An invasive species record — Chinese Mystery Snail — has been logged at Mud Lake; Wisconsin DNR maintains the official infested-waters list. The fishery is bass-led, with 3 documented species across the lake's records. 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.