Pine Lake

Pine Lake earns an A — every scored parameter (clarity and phosphorus) rates among the best monitored waters in Shawano County. clarity and phosphorus rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

Mesotrophic conditions dominate at Pine Lake: enough nutrients for a healthy fishery, not so much that algal blooms become a chronic problem. 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 5 — 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 among the lake's 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.