Conestogo Lake

Where Conestogo Lake is

Conestogo Lake lies in the County of Wellington, within the Township of Mapleton.

How deep is Conestogo Lake?

The deepest mapped contour on Conestogo Lake is 24.0 meters, and the water within that boundary descends even farther. Ontario’s bathymetry record holds 86 depth contours for Conestogo Lake.

Surveyed Depths

Ontario has surveyed the depths of several thousand of its lakes over more than half a century. Later surveys were conducted by boat with satellite positioning and produced hundreds of thousands of soundings per lake. Earlier surveys were charted by running transects across the water and drawing depth contours by hand.

Water quality

Ontario’s Lake Partner Program is a volunteer monitoring network. Participants collect a water sample each spring for phosphorus analysis and measure water clarity through the summer with a Secchi disk.

Phosphorus is the nutrient that controls how much algae a lake can grow. A lake with little phosphorus stays clear and supports cold-water fish such as lake trout. As phosphorus rises, algae increase, the water clouds, and oxygen in the deep water falls as the algae decay. The province classifies each monitoring site by its spring phosphorus. Below 10 micrograms per litre is oligotrophic: clear water and low algae. From 10 to 20 is mesotrophic: moderately productive water, with more algae and weed growth than an oligotrophic lake but rarely a bloom. Above 20 is eutrophic: nutrient-rich water, prone to algal blooms and low oxygen at depth.

A Secchi disk is a 20 centimeter white or black-and-white plate lowered on a marked line until it disappears from view. The depth at which it vanishes is the Secchi depth, a direct measure of water clarity. Clearer water gives a deeper reading.

No monitoring site on Conestogo Lake is registered with the Lake Partner Program, so no phosphorus or clarity record exists for the lake.

Fish in Conestogo Lake

Ontario’s aquatic resource records name 13 fish species in Conestogo Lake. The province classes the lake as cool water. The record took effect on 31 October 2019, and it compiles what field biologists had reported by then. The province’s other records for the lake name one further species, black crappie. It appears in the records below.

Ten of the fourteen species in the province’s records

• Northern Pikepike
• Walleyeperch
• Yellow Perchperch
• Smallmouth Basssunfish
• Largemouth Basssunfish
• Black Crappiesunfish
• Rock Basssunfish
• Pumpkinseedsunfish
• Brown Bullheadcatfish
• Common Carpminnow

Spawning areas

Ontario maps 3 fish spawning records within the Conestogo Lake outline: 3 northern pike spawning areas covering 18.18 hectares.

By number of records

By area mapped

• Northern Pike3 areas18.2 ha

The federal Fisheries Act prohibits the harmful alteration, disruption or destruction of fish habitat without an authorization, so a dock, dredging, infill or shoreline work at a mapped spawning area is reviewed on that basis.

Eating the fish

The 2025 Guide to Eating Ontario Fish carries consumption advice for eight species taken from Conestogo Lake, tested for contaminants at a sampling location in Maryborough Twp., Wellington Co. Each figure below is the most meals a month the guide advises for a fish of that length. The advice falls as the fish gets longer, because mercury accumulates over a fish’s life. A zero means the guide advises no meals of that fish at that size.

General population adultsSensitive population children under fifteen, women who are or may become pregnant

Fisheries Management Zone 16

Conestogo Lake lies in Fisheries Management Zone 16. Ontario sets its fishing seasons and catch limits by zone. Zone 16 is the most southerly inland zone in the province and takes in all of southwestern Ontario, with Toronto, Mississauga, Hamilton, Kitchener-Waterloo and London. The province describes it as a zone of large river systems, with Lake Simcoe and Lake Couchiching its large lakes, carrying important recreational and tourism fisheries under high fishing effort.

The figures are the number of fish an angler may catch and keep in a day and have in possession, under a sport fishing licence and under a conservation licence. The rows are the whole zone’s, and they apply to every lake in it. No waterbody exception names Conestogo Lake.

Conestogo Lake Ice Fishing

An ice hut on Conestogo Lake must be removed by March 15. Conestogo Lake lies in fisheries management zone 16, one of the twenty zones Ontario sets its fishing rules by, and one removal date applies across the whole zone.

An ice hut must also be removed before the ice breaks up, whether or not that date has passed. The deadline clears huts from the ice ahead of the thaw and does not close the fishing season.

Registration is required in zone 16 for an ice hut built of anything other than fabric, and for a fabric tent covering seven square meters or more. Registration is free, and the number is displayed on the outside of the hut.

Ice conditions

No public record reports the thickness or the condition of the ice on Conestogo Lake on any given day. Ontario publishes ice safety guidance for anyone going out on the ice, at ontario.ca.

Islands and names

Conestogo Lake contains two islands in the Ontario Hydro Network’s outline, of 0.5 hectares, none of them named in the province’s register.

Nearby lakes

• Lake Belwood32 km away
• Puslinch Lake49 km away
• Lake Eugenia72 km away
• Lake Simcoe130 km away

All lakes

Questions about Conestogo Lake

• How deep is Conestogo Lake?

  Its deepest charted contour is 24 meters, and the water within it is deeper.

• How big is Conestogo Lake?

  Its surface covers 6.1 square kilometers and it holds 2 islands. Of its 43 kilometers of shoreline, 42 kilometers is the mainland shore and 1 kilometers is the shore of the islands.

• What fish are in Conestogo Lake?

  Ontario’s aquatic resource records name thirteen species, among them walleye, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, northern pike and yellow perch. The lake’s spawning, consumption and stocking records also name black crappie.