Lower Nashotah Lake

Lower Nashotah Lake carries a solid B grade — strong on most parameters, with measurements that hold up well across the summer season. The lake's weakest score is on Secchi depth — the water looks more turbid than its phosphorus number alone would predict.

Mesotrophic conditions dominate at Lower Nashotah Lake: enough nutrients for a healthy fishery, not so much that algal blooms become a chronic problem. Lower Nashotah Lake reaches 43 ft at its deepest point — typical for Wisconsin mid-sized lakes, with seasonal stratification but limited cold-water refuge. The lake is compact at 93 acres, with partial shoreline records and little volume to buffer nutrient inputs. Lower Nashotah Lake sits at rank 26 of 45 in Waukesha County, in the lower half of the local distribution.

Lower Nashotah Lake is on the Wisconsin infested-waters list for zebra mussels — boaters should follow clean-drain-dry protocols when moving gear to or from the lake. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 6 documented species — a notable draw for Wisconsin anglers. Public access is available — the lake is on the Wisconsin DNR public-access list. 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.