Yankee Lake

Yankee Lake sits at a C on the grading scale — not impaired, not pristine, with summer measurements that vary year to year. Clarity is the limiting factor — phosphorus is reasonable but suspended particles or algal cells keep water transparency below Wisconsin norms.

A TSI in the eutrophic range signals a lake doing what nutrient-loaded waters do — supporting an active algal community at the cost of clear water. The lake bottoms out at 20 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. At 14 acres, Yankee Lake sits below the Wisconsin median: a small water where shoreline activity has an outsized effect on water quality. Within the 21 graded lakes of Marinette County, Yankee Lake sits at rank 18, near the bottom of the county list.

Yankee 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.