Buckskin Lake

Buckskin Lake sits at a C on the grading scale — not impaired, not pristine, with summer measurements that vary year to year. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

Mesotrophic conditions dominate at Buckskin Lake: enough nutrients for a healthy fishery, not so much that algal blooms become a chronic problem. The lake bottoms out at 22 ft — a moderate depth that supports a warm-water fishery without the year-round cold refuge a deeper basin provides. Buckskin Lake covers 642 acres alongside partial shoreline records — a mid-sized water that supports a working fishery without being so large that conditions diverge between basins. Buckskin Lake sits at rank 89 of 134 in Oneida County, in the lower half of the local distribution.

Buckskin Lake has at least one documented invasive species (Chinese Mystery Snail), so boaters and anglers should observe clean-drain-dry steps when leaving the lake. Walleye are documented at Buckskin Lake, one of 5 fish species on record for the lake. A documented public access point at Buckskin Lake makes the lake usable for shore fishing, paddle craft, and trailered boats. 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.