Oberlin Lake

Oberlin Lake earns a C — middle-of-the-pack water quality, with one or two parameters dragging the average down from a stronger grade. Sub-grades cluster within a single letter of each other, which usually means the lake is in stable trophic balance rather than fighting one specific stressor.

A TSI near 45 places Oberlin Lake in the mesotrophic band — moderate productivity, with seasonal swings between clearer spring water and richer late-summer conditions. A maximum depth of 25 ft puts Oberlin Lake in the middle of Wisconsin's depth distribution. Oberlin Lake is small — 42 acres alongside partial shoreline records — which makes it sensitive to even modest changes in watershed runoff or recreational pressure. Within the 191 graded lakes of Vilas County, Oberlin Lake sits at rank 157, near the bottom of the county list.

Oberlin Lake has no invasive species recorded in Wisconsin state databases as of 2024, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. The fishery is bass-led, with 2 documented species across the lake's records. A documented public access point at Oberlin 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.