Tea Lake

Tea 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.

Mesotrophic conditions dominate at Tea Lake: enough nutrients for a healthy fishery, not so much that algal blooms become a chronic problem. Tea Lake reaches 48 ft at its deepest point — typical for Wisconsin mid-sized lakes, with seasonal stratification but limited cold-water refuge. The lake is compact at 50 acres, with partial shoreline records and little volume to buffer nutrient inputs. Tea Lake ranks 3 of 10 in Ashland County — solidly in the upper half of the local distribution.

No invasive species are currently listed at Tea Lake — the lake remains off the Wisconsin infested-waters roster. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 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.