Smith Lake

Smith Lake earns an A — water clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate among the best monitored waters in Sawyer County. 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.

A TSI value of 34 puts Smith Lake in the oligotrophic range, where biological productivity stays low and the water column remains clear. The lake bottoms out at 29 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. At 326 acres, Smith Lake fits the Wisconsin median for monitored lakes, with partial shoreline records. Smith Lake ranks 24 of 52 in Sawyer County — solidly in the upper half of the local distribution.

An invasive species record — Banded Mystery Snail — has been logged at Smith Lake; Wisconsin DNR maintains the official infested-waters list. Walleye are documented at Smith Lake, one of 4 fish species on record for the lake. A documented public access point at Smith 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.