Pine Lake

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

A TSI value of 34 puts Pine Lake in the oligotrophic range, where biological productivity stays low and the water column remains clear. A maximum depth of 35 ft puts Pine Lake in the middle of Wisconsin's depth distribution. Pine Lake covers 217 acres alongside partial shoreline records — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Among the 27 graded lakes in Shawano County, Pine Lake ranks 3 — in the top quartile locally.

Zebra mussels have been documented at Pine Lake, which alters the filter-feeding balance and can paradoxically increase water clarity while disrupting the food web. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 5 documented species — a notable draw for Wisconsin anglers. 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.