Shawano Lake

Shawano Lake sits at the top of the Wisconsin DNR grading rubric with an A, a mark reached by the cleanest lakes in Wisconsin. 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.

The lake sits in the mesotrophic zone — the band where most well-managed Wisconsin lakes fall. A maximum depth of 40 ft puts Shawano Lake in the middle of Wisconsin's depth distribution. At 6,215 acres, Shawano Lake is one of the larger lakes in Shawano County, with partial shoreline records supporting multiple distinct use patterns. Within Shawano County's 27 graded lakes, Shawano Lake ranks 17 — below the local median, though not at the bottom.

Zebra mussel presence at Shawano Lake means the lake's clarity numbers carry an asterisk — filtered water is not the same as nutrient-poor water. Walleye are documented at Shawano Lake, one of 6 fish species on record for the lake. A documented public access point at Shawano 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.