Smith Lake

The LakeGrade rubric puts Smith Lake at a C: clarity at 8.5 ft, phosphorus readings still being added, and a TSI of 46 signal an intermediate trophic state. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

A TSI near 46 places Smith Lake in the mesotrophic band — moderate productivity, with seasonal swings between clearer spring water and richer late-summer conditions. The lake bottoms out at 18 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. Smith Lake is small — 41 acres alongside partial shoreline records — which makes it sensitive to even modest changes in watershed runoff or recreational pressure. Within the 191 graded lakes of Vilas County, Smith Lake sits at rank 159, near the bottom of the county list.

Smith Lake has no invasive species recorded in Wisconsin state databases as of 2024, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. The fishery is bass-led, with 2 documented species across the lake's records. 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.