Whitefish Lake

Whitefish Lake earns an A — every scored parameter (clarity and phosphorus) rates among the best monitored waters in Douglas County. With clarity and phosphorus scored, the sub-grades cluster within a letter of each other, pointing to stable conditions rather than one specific stressor.

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. At 102 ft of maximum depth, Whitefish Lake stratifies reliably through the summer — the hypolimnion stays cooler and clearer than the surface layer suggests. The lake's 848 acres and partial shoreline records put it in the mid-range bucket — large enough for varied use, small enough that watershed inputs reach the whole basin. Among the 40 graded lakes in Douglas County, Whitefish Lake ranks 3 — in the top quartile locally.

Whitefish Lake carries an invasive watermilfoil record — boat-launch decontamination and shoreline care matter more here than at uninfested lakes. The fishery includes walleye among the lake's 5 documented species — a notable draw for Wisconsin anglers. 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.