Pine Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Pine Lake pulls an A: clarity at 45.9 ft and phosphorus readings still being added put it in the top bracket for Wisconsin. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

Trophically, Pine Lake reads as oligotrophic — nutrient-poor, clear, and ecologically more sensitive to disturbance than richer lakes. The lake bottoms out at 48 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. Pine Lake covers 137 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 30 graded lakes in Waushara County, Pine Lake sits at rank 10, above the county median.

Eurasian watermilfoil has been documented at Pine 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 Pine 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.