Patrick Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Patrick Lake pulls an A: clarity at 16.4 ft and 19 µg/L of phosphorus put it in the top bracket for Wisconsin. 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.

Mesotrophic conditions dominate at Patrick Lake: enough nutrients for a healthy fishery, not so much that algal blooms become a chronic problem. A maximum depth of 21 ft puts Patrick Lake in the middle of Wisconsin's depth distribution. Patrick Lake is small — 39 acres alongside partial shoreline records — which makes it sensitive to even modest changes in watershed runoff or recreational pressure. Among the 20 graded lakes in Adams County, Patrick Lake sits at rank 10, above the county median.

Eurasian watermilfoil has been documented at Patrick Lake, requiring shoreline management to keep dense mats from crowding native vegetation. The fishery is bass-led, with 3 documented species across the lake's records. A documented public access point at Patrick 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.