Little Sand Lake

On the LakeGrade rubric, Little Sand Lake pulls an A: clarity at 16.4 ft and 28 µg/L of phosphorus put it in the top bracket for Wisconsin. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

Mesotrophic conditions dominate at Little Sand Lake: enough nutrients for a healthy fishery, not so much that algal blooms become a chronic problem. A maximum depth of 39 ft puts Little Sand Lake in the middle of Wisconsin's depth distribution. Little Sand Lake is small — 94 acres alongside partial shoreline records — which makes it sensitive to even modest changes in watershed runoff or recreational pressure. Little Sand Lake ranks 18 of 38 in Barron County — solidly in the upper half of the local distribution.

Little Sand Lake has no invasive species recorded in Wisconsin state databases as of 2025, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. The fishery is bass-led, with 4 documented species across the lake's records. A documented public access point at Little Sand 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.