Sportsman Lake
Seminole County, Oklahoma590 acresView mapDirections
Oklahoma DEQ publishes the water-quality measurements for Sportsman Lake. Here is what has been measured.
- Eutrophic
- 45 ft max depth
- Limited data
Sportsman Lake in Seminole County, Oklahoma has water-quality measurements published by Oklahoma DEQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 6.2 ft visibility. Phosphorus: 50 µg/L. Surface area: 590 acres.
Sportsman Lake is a 590-acre productive, nutrient-rich eutrophic lake in Seminole County, Oklahoma with an estimated average depth of about 45 feet. Overall water quality is improving over recent sampling years. Compared to the 3 other monitored lakes in Seminole County, Sportsman Lake ranks #3 for water quality.
Source: EPA Water Quality Portal sampling records, ODEQ, last sampled 2019-09-10. Methodology: how these readings are compared.
Sportsman Lake covers about 590 acres in Seminole County. For a place on the water, look through cabin and lake-house rentals near Sportsman Lake on Vrbo. For a hotel or motel room, Booking.com and Expedia both search around the lake.
Swimming conditions
Readings onlyLimited data
Based on clarity and algae readings from past sampling — there is no live water temperature and a current cyanobacteria reading for this lake. Check your state or county health department before you swim.
Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Check local advisories before you swim.
Whether Sportsman Lake is safe to swim in today is a call for the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality and the county health department, who post current advisories. LakeQuality does not issue swimming clearances.
Water quality measurements for Sportsman Lake
These are the measurements Oklahoma DEQ publishes for Sportsman Lake, shown as reported. The condition class beside each reading is the EPA National Lakes Assessment class for this lake’s ecoregion.
Murky, only visible to about 6.2 ft. Phosphorus 50 µg/L. TSI 56.
| Measure | Reading | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|
| Water clarity (Secchi depth) | 6.2ft | Measured, not scored How deep a black-and-white disk stays visible from the surface. Higher is clearer. |
| Total phosphorus | 50µg/L | Poor GoodFairPoor |
| Chlorophyll-a (algae) | No reading The green pigment in algae — a direct measure of how much algae is in the water. | |
| Trophic state (TSI)Carlson's 0–100 index of how much algae a lake can support, from clarity, phosphorus and chlorophyll-a. | 56 | Eutrophic OligotrophicMesotrophicEutrophicHypereutrophic |
High nutrients, frequent algae, reduced clarity
Ask about Sportsman Lake
Answers come straight from the public measurements and survey records on this page.
Lake Details
Max depth
~45 ft est.
Surface area
590 acres
Depth marked “est.” is a modeled maximum from GLOBathy (Khazaei et al. 2022, CC0), not a measured survey. Oklahoma has not published bathymetry for Sportsman Lake.
Lake Size & Watershed
Watershed (drainage) area
13 sq mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Shoreline
6.8 mi
HydroLAKES / HydroSHEDS
Elevation
886 ft
Size, shoreline, and watershed area from HydroLAKES (HydroSHEDS). Mean depth here is modelled, not surveyed — HydroLAKES v1.0 estimates lake depth from surrounding terrain rather than from soundings. Treat it as an approximation, and prefer a state bathymetric survey where one exists.
Stays via Stay22
Stays near Sportsman Lake
Compare lakeside cabins, hotels, and vacation rentals near Sportsman Lake in Seminole County, Oklahoma — live availability and prices for your trip. Switch the map to Satellite to see the lake and how close each stay is to the water. The water-quality readings cover nutrients and algae, not lodging. Cabins and rentals around Sportsman Lake are listed below.
Top-rated places to stay near Sportsman Lake
Prices for Oct 30–Nov 1, 4 adults. Change dates on the map below.
Availability and prices from Stay22 partners (Booking.com, Vrbo, Expedia). We may earn a commission from bookings, at no extra cost to you.
Planning a whole trip? See where to stay at Oklahoma’s top lakes →
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Fishing Sportsman Lake
Water quality readings over time
2 seasons of samples on record (2015–2016). Calling a direction takes at least 4 years of the same measurement.
Phosphorus
Improving-50 µg/L/yr2 years
Reservoir Info (USACE NID)
Sportsman Lake is a man-made reservoir impounded by the SCS-Big Wewoka Creek Site-22 (completed 1958), built primarily for flood risk reduction on the Tiger Creek; earth-type dam, 80 ft tall and 1,290 ft long.
- Surface area
- 590 ac
- Normal storage
- 5,349 ac-ft
- Max storage
- 11,850 ac-ft
- Drainage area
- 12.4 sq mi
- Hazard class
- Low
- Owner
- SEMINOLE COUNTY CONSERVATION DISTRICT
Source: USACE National Inventory of Dams, NID ID OK01325 · Operator website · Matched by proximity (0.99 km)
Nearby Lakes in Seminole County
Frequently asked questions about Sportsman Lake
Where is Sportsman Lake?
- Sportsman Lake is a lake in Seminole County, Oklahoma. Its water-quality measurements are published by Oklahoma DEQ and shown on this page as reported.
What is the water quality of Sportsman Lake?
- Sportsman Lake in Seminole County, Oklahoma has water-quality measurements published by Oklahoma DEQ, shown here as reported. Water clarity: 6.2 ft visibility. Phosphorus: 50 µg/L. Surface area: 590 acres.
Is Sportsman Lake safe to swim in?
- Nutrient and algae readings are not a swimming clearance. Check local advisories before you swim.
How deep is Sportsman Lake?
- No published bathymetric survey covers Sportsman Lake, so its depth has not been measured. The HydroLAKES global model estimates an average depth of about 45 feet, but that is a modelled estimate derived from surrounding terrain rather than a measurement on the water, so treat it as approximate. The lake covers 590 acres.
Explore Sportsman Lake across LakeQuality
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Eutrophic Lakes in Oklahoma
Where this data comes from
34 measurements from 4 monitoring stations, 2012–2019. Retrieved from the EPA Water Quality Portal on 2026-08-02.
Collected and reported by
- The Seminole Nation of Oklahoma (Tribal)
SNEPO_WQX22 samples · 2012–2016 - OWRB Lakes Monitoring
OKWRB-LAKES_WQX12 samples · 2018–2019
Analytical methods
- OWRB Lakes Field Data Collection
Monitoring station identifiers (4)
EPA condition classes from the National Lakes Assessment (EPA 841-R-24-006, Table 6-3), applied by ecoregion. See where the data comes from and data sources.
Other records on this page
Lake size & watershed from HydroLAKES (HydroSHEDS)