Shay Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Shay Lake pulls an A: clarity at 15.0 ft and 14 µg/L of phosphorus put it in the top bracket for 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 36 ft puts Shay Lake in the middle of Wisconsin's depth distribution. The lake is compact at 68 acres, with partial shoreline records and little volume to buffer nutrient inputs. Within Oconto County's 62 graded waters, Shay Lake sits at rank 12, near the top of the local distribution.

Shay Lake has at least one documented invasive species (Chinese Mystery Snail), so boaters and anglers should observe clean-drain-dry steps when leaving the lake. The state fisheries records do not list documented species for Shay Lake, which usually reflects a lack of formal fisheries survey work rather than an empty lake. Public access is available — the lake is on the Wisconsin DNR public-access list. 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.