Red Lake

Red Lake sits at the top of the Wisconsin DNR grading rubric with an A, a mark reached by the cleanest lakes in Wisconsin. The two scored sub-grades — clarity and phosphorus — track close together, so neither one is dragging the average down.

The lake sits in the mesotrophic zone — the band where most well-managed Wisconsin lakes fall. A maximum depth of 37 ft puts Red Lake in the middle of Wisconsin's depth distribution. The lake's 253 acres and partial shoreline records put it in the mid-range bucket — large enough for varied use, small enough that watershed inputs reach the whole basin. Red Lake ranks 11 of 40 in Douglas County — solidly in the upper half of the local distribution.

Eurasian watermilfoil has been documented at Red Lake, requiring shoreline management to keep dense mats from crowding native vegetation. The fishery includes walleye among the lake's 4 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.