Stratton Lake

Stratton Lake earns an A — water clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate among the best monitored waters in Waupaca County. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

The lake sits in the mesotrophic zone — the band where most well-managed Wisconsin lakes fall. Stratton Lake reaches 42 ft at its deepest point — typical for Wisconsin mid-sized lakes, with seasonal stratification but limited cold-water refuge. At 63 acres, Stratton Lake sits below the Wisconsin median: a small water where shoreline activity has an outsized effect on water quality. Among the 25 graded lakes in Waupaca County, Stratton Lake sits at rank 11, above the county median.

Zebra mussels have been documented at Stratton Lake, which alters the filter-feeding balance and can paradoxically increase water clarity while disrupting the food web. The fishery is bass-led, with 4 documented species across the lake's records. 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.