Windigo Lake

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

A TSI value of 35 puts Windigo Lake in the oligotrophic range, where biological productivity stays low and the water column remains clear. The lake's 51 ft maximum depth is in the upper tier for Wisconsin — deep enough for cold-water fish to find refuge in summer. The lake's 503 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. Windigo Lake ranks 3 of 52 in Sawyer County, putting it in the upper tier of locally monitored lakes.

Windigo Lake has no invasive species recorded in Wisconsin state databases as of 2023, though prevention practices still apply at all access points. The fishery includes walleye alongside the lake's other 5 documented species — a notable draw for Wisconsin anglers. 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.