Ne Bay Lake

Ne Bay Lake comes in at a B on the grading rubric — a respectable showing for a Wisconsin lake of its size and depth. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

The lake sits in the mesotrophic zone — the band where most well-managed Wisconsin lakes fall. The lake bottoms out at 19 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. The lake's 270 acres and partial shoreline records put it in the mid-range bucket — large enough for varied use, small enough that watershed inputs reach the whole basin. Within the 202 graded lakes of Vilas County, Ne Bay Lake sits at rank 183, near the bottom of the county list.

Eurasian watermilfoil is established at Ne Bay Lake, which can dampen recreational access and pressure the native plant community. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 5 documented species — a notable draw for Wisconsin anglers. A documented public access point at Ne Bay Lake makes the lake usable for shore fishing, paddle craft, and trailered boats. 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.