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's low TSI puts it in oligotrophic territory — the cleanest of the four trophic classes, but also the most vulnerable to nutrient-driven shifts. 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. Stratton Lake sits at rank 15 of 27 in Waupaca County, in the lower half of the local distribution.

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.