West Horsehead Lake

West Horsehead Lake earns a C — middle-of-the-pack water quality, with one or two parameters dragging the average down from a stronger grade. Clarity, phosphorus, and chlorophyll-a all rate similarly, so there is no obvious single lever to pull on watershed management.

Mesotrophic conditions dominate at West Horsehead Lake: enough nutrients for a healthy fishery, not so much that algal blooms become a chronic problem. West Horsehead Lake reaches 23 ft at its deepest point — typical for Wisconsin mid-sized lakes, with seasonal stratification but limited cold-water refuge. At 145 acres, West Horsehead Lake fits the Wisconsin median for monitored lakes, with partial shoreline records. Within Oneida County's 134 graded lakes, West Horsehead Lake ranks 79 — below the local median, though not at the bottom.

West Horsehead Lake has no invasive species recorded in Wisconsin state databases as of 2025, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. Walleye are documented at West Horsehead Lake, one of 5 fish species on record for the lake. 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.