Potter Lake

Potter 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.

Eutrophic conditions are the baseline here: clarity drops noticeably in late summer, and dissolved oxygen near the bottom can become a concern. Potter Lake reaches 26 ft at its deepest point — typical for Wisconsin mid-sized lakes, with seasonal stratification but limited cold-water refuge. Potter Lake covers 155 acres alongside partial shoreline records — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Within the 34 graded lakes of Walworth County, Potter Lake sits at rank 30, near the bottom of the county list.

Zebra mussel presence at Potter Lake means the lake's clarity numbers carry an asterisk — filtered water is not the same as nutrient-poor water. Bass fishing is part of the appeal: the species list runs to 3, anchored by largemouth and/or smallmouth bass. A documented public access point at Potter 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.