Watersmeet Lake

Watersmeet Lake carries a solid B grade — strong on most parameters, with measurements that hold up well across the summer season. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

Mesotrophic conditions dominate at Watersmeet Lake: enough nutrients for a healthy fishery, not so much that algal blooms become a chronic problem. 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 202 graded lakes of Vilas County, Watersmeet Lake sits at rank 188, 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.