Watersmeet Lake

Watersmeet Lake earns a C — middle-of-the-pack water quality, with one or two parameters dragging the average down from a stronger grade. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

Eutrophic conditions are the baseline here: clarity drops noticeably in late summer, and dissolved oxygen near the bottom can become a concern. At only 12 ft deep, Watersmeet Lake is shallow — wind keeps the water column mixed and sediment resuspension drives phosphorus levels harder to manage. At 107 acres, Watersmeet Lake fits the Wisconsin median for monitored lakes, with partial shoreline records. Within the 191 graded lakes of Vilas County, Watersmeet Lake sits at rank 163, near the bottom of the county list.

Eurasian watermilfoil has been documented at Watersmeet Lake, requiring shoreline management to keep dense mats from crowding native vegetation. 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.