Upper Backwater Lake

Upper Backwater Lake comes in at a B on the grading rubric — a respectable showing for a Wisconsin lake of its size and depth. The three sub-grades — clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a — track close together, so no single parameter is dragging the average.

The lake sits in the mesotrophic zone — the band where most well-managed Wisconsin lakes fall. Upper Backwater Lake reaches 19 ft at its deepest point — typical for Wisconsin mid-sized lakes, with seasonal stratification but limited cold-water refuge. The lake is compact at 24 acres, with partial shoreline records and little volume to buffer nutrient inputs. Within the 4 graded lakes of Jackson County, Upper Backwater Lake sits at rank 4, near the bottom of the county list.

Upper Backwater Lake has no invasive species recorded in Wisconsin state databases as of 2023, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 6 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.