Kenora District, Ontario
Dryberry Lake
Ninety-six square kilometers of cold water in Sioux Narrows-Nestor Falls, with 154 islands and 388 kilometers of shoreline, charted to 103.6 meters across 795 depth lines. Twenty-two muskellunge spawning areas are mapped, and the aquatic resource record lists 30 species.
- Surface
- 96.3 km²
- Shoreline
- 388 km287 mainland + 101 islands
- Islands
- 154
- Charted depth
- 103.6 m
- Depth contours
- 795
All figures are derived from Ontario’s survey records.
Where Dryberry Lake is
Dryberry Lake lies in the District of Kenora, within the Township of Sioux Narrows-Nestor Falls.
How deep is Dryberry Lake?
The deepest mapped contour on Dryberry Lake is 103.6 meters, and the water within that boundary descends even farther. Ontario’s bathymetry record holds 795 depth contours for Dryberry 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.
Dryberry Lake has 1 Lake Partner monitoring site, which has yet reported phosphorus for the three years the province requires before a status is assigned.
Fish in Dryberry Lake
Ontario’s aquatic resource records name 30 fish species in Dryberry Lake. The province classes the lake as cold water. The record took effect on 7 June 2019, and it compiles what field biologists had reported by then. The province’s other records for the lake name one further species, walleye. It appears in the records below.
Eleven of the 31 species in the province’s records
Lake Trouttrout and whitefish
Lake Whitefishtrout and whitefish
Ciscotrout and whitefish
Northern Pikepike
Muskellungepike
Walleyeperch
Yellow Perchperch
Smallmouth Basssunfish
Rock Basssunfish
Pumpkinseedsunfish
Burbotcod
| Family | Species |
|---|---|
| Perch | iowa darter, johnny darter, johnny darter x tesselated darter, logperch |
| Sucker | white sucker |
| Minnow | blackchin shiner, blacknose shiner, bluntnose minnow, common shiner, emerald shiner, golden shiner, lake chub, mimic shiner, spottail shiner |
| Sculpin | deepwater sculpin, mottled sculpin, sculpins, slimy sculpin |
| Stickleback | ninespine stickleback |
| Other | northern sunfish |
Spawning areas
Ontario maps 83 fish spawning records within the Dryberry Lake outline, for three species, all of them mapped areas.
By number of records
By area mapped
- Lake Trout58 areas104.7 ha
- Muskellunge22 areas95.9 ha
- Walleye3 areas2.7 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.
Stocking history
Ontario’s stocking records for Dryberry Lake run from 1946 to 1950 and hold 5 releases. Walleye account for most of the fish: 500,000 released in one of the years between 1950 and 1950. The last recorded release was 500,000 walleye frys in 1950.
| Species | Years | Years with a release | Fish released |
|---|---|---|---|
| Walleye | 1950 to 1950 | 1 | 500,000 |
| Lake Trout | 1946 to 1949 | 4 | 16,000 |
The province’s current stocking programme, recorded from 2016, lists no release into Dryberry Lake.
Eating the fish
The 2025 Guide to Eating Ontario Fish carries consumption advice for seven species taken from Dryberry Lake, tested for contaminants at a sampling location in Kenora Dist. 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
| Length, cm | 30 to 35 | 35 to 40 | 40 to 45 | 45 to 50 | 50 to 55 | 55 to 60 | 60 to 65 | 65 to 70 | 70 to 75 | over 75 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General population | 32 | 32 | 16 | 16 | 12 | 12 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 0 |
| Sensitive population | 16 | 16 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Length, cm | 30 to 35 | 35 to 40 | 40 to 45 | 45 to 50 | 50 to 55 | 55 to 60 | 60 to 65 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General population | 32 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 16 |
| Sensitive population | 32 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 12 | 12 |
| Length, cm | 55 to 60 | 60 to 65 | 65 to 70 | 70 to 75 | over 75 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General population | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 4 |
| Sensitive population | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Length, cm | 65 to 70 | 70 to 75 | over 75 |
|---|---|---|---|
| General population | 16 | 8 | 4 |
| Sensitive population | 12 | 4 | 0 |
| Length, cm | 30 to 35 | 35 to 40 | 40 to 45 | 45 to 50 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General population | 16 | 12 | 8 | 4 |
| Sensitive population | 8 | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Length, cm | 40 to 45 | 45 to 50 | 50 to 55 |
|---|---|---|---|
| General population | 8 | 8 | 8 |
| Sensitive population | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| Length, cm | 35 to 40 | 40 to 45 |
|---|---|---|
| General population | 32 | 32 |
| Sensitive population | 16 | 16 |
Fisheries Management Zone 5
Dryberry Lake lies in Fisheries Management Zone 5. Ontario sets its fishing seasons and catch limits by zone.
| Species | Open season | Sport licence | Conservation licence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brook Trout | Open all year | 5 | 2 |
| Brown Trout | Open all year | 5 | 2 |
| Crappie | Open all year | 10 | 5 |
| Lake Trout | Jan. 1 – Sept. 30 | 2, not more than 1 greater than 56 cm (22 in.) from Sept. 1 – Sept. 30 | 1, no size limit |
| Lake Whitefish | Open all year | 12 | 6 |
| Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass or any combination | Open all year | 4; Must be less than 35 cm (13.8 in.) from Jan. 1 – June 30 | 2; Must be less than 35 cm (13.8 in.) from Jan. 1 – June 30 |
| Muskellunge | 3rd Sat. in June – Dec. 15 | 1, must be greater than 102 cm (40 in.) | 0 |
| Northern Pike | Open all year | 4; none greater than 75 cm (29.5 in.) | 2; none greater than 75 cm (29.5 in.) |
| Rainbow Trout | Open all year | 5 | 2 |
| Splake | Open all year | 5 | 2 |
| Sunfish | Open all year | 50 | 25 |
| Walleye and Sauger or any combination | Jan. 1 – Apr. 14 & 3rd Sat. in May – Dec. 31 | 4, not more than 1 greater than 46 cm (18.1 in.) | 2, not more than 1 greater than 46 cm (18.1 in.) |
| Yellow Perch | Open all year | 50 | 25 |
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. Zone-wide, Smelt may not be used as bait or possessed for use as bait.
| Species | Open season | Sport licence | Conservation licence | Size limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Muskellunge | Zone-wide | Zone-wide | Zone-wide | Must be greater than 137 cm (54 in.) |
| Lake Trout | Zone-wide | 2, not more than 1 greater than 65 cm (25.6 in.); 1 in one day | 1, any size | — |
Where a row reads zone-wide, the zone’s own season or limit above applies. Muskellunge: Fish or fish parts may not be used as bait from Jan. 1 – Fri. before 3rd Sat. in May. Muskellunge: Only barbless hooks may be used from Jan. 1 – Fri. before 3rd Sat. in May. Lake Trout: Fish or fish parts may not be used as bait from Jan. 1 – Fri. before 3rd Sat. in May. Lake Trout: Only barbless hooks may be used from Jan. 1 – Fri. before 3rd Sat. in May.
Islands and names
Dryberry Lake contains 154 islands in the Ontario Hydro Network’s outline, twenty of them over 10 hectares and 58 under a tenth of a hectare.
| Island | Hectares | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | unnamed | 199.1 |
| 2 | unnamed | 37.2 |
| 3 | unnamed | 27.4 |
| 4 | unnamed | 26.2 |
| 5 | unnamed | 22.4 |
| 6 | unnamed | 18.8 |
| 7 | unnamed | 18.0 |
| 8 | unnamed | 17.7 |
| 9 | unnamed | 17.5 |
| 10 | unnamed | 17.1 |
Official names
Ontario’s geographic names register lists 4 official names on the water and its islands: 1 island and two bays.
Bays 2
- Northwest Bay
- Point Bay
Nearby lakes
- Kakagi Lake37 km away
- Eagle Lake48 km away
- Wabigoon Lake82 km away
- Dinorwic Lake92 km away
Questions about Dryberry Lake
- How deep is Dryberry Lake?
Its deepest charted contour is 103.6 meters, and the water within it is deeper.
- How big is Dryberry Lake?
Its surface covers 96.3 square kilometers and it holds 154 islands. Of its 388 kilometers of shoreline, 287 kilometers is the mainland shore and 101 kilometers is the shore of the islands.
- What fish are in Dryberry Lake?
Ontario’s aquatic resource records name 30 species, among them lake trout, smallmouth bass, northern pike, muskellunge, lake whitefish and yellow perch. The lake’s spawning, consumption and stocking records also name walleye.
A print of Dryberry Lake
Dryberry Lake has not yet been drawn as a print. The lakes drawn so far are on the lake maps page, and a print of Dryberry Lake can be requested by email; whether it can be drawn is confirmed before any payment.
Ask about a Dryberry Lake printLooking at a property on Dryberry Lake?
Depth and water quality are two records out of many. Our Rural & Cottage Buyer’s Report gathers what the public record holds about one specific address: shore road allowance, road access, wells, flood mapping, Crown land, wetlands and more, read and checked by a person before it is sent.
What these figures do and do not say
- Depth
- A depth reading is the distance from the water surface on the day of survey to the lake bottom. Lake levels vary through the season and between years. The depth figure above is the deepest contour charted and is a minimum; the depth within it was not recorded. The figures for Dryberry Lake are read from the province’s bathymetry records within the Ontario Hydro Network’s outline of the lake: the deepest figure is the deepest record inside that outline, and the count is every record inside it.
- Shoreline and surface
- The shoreline figure is the length of the mainland shore and of every island shore added together, measured on the Ontario Hydro Network’s outline of the lake. The surface figure is the area of water inside that outline, less the area of its islands. The provincial outline is mapped to within a few meters of the shore, and a shoreline measured from a coarser map comes out shorter, which is why a figure published elsewhere is often lower.
- Survey coverage
- Not every survey covered every arm of a lake, and the province’s index does not always record where a survey ended.
- Water quality
- Each figure belongs to a single monitoring site and not to the lake as a whole. A bay receiving a creek can read differently from open water half a kilometer away. Sites are matched to Dryberry Lake by name in the province’s records.
- Nearby lakes
- Distances are measured between lake centres.
- Islands and names
- Islands are counted and measured on the Ontario Hydro Network outline; names are the register’s, placed by its own coordinate. The register names islands the outline draws as part of a larger one, and the outline holds islands the register has not named, so the two counts differ. The outline carries some lakes across marsh, so a gap in the marsh is drawn as land, and every such gap is included in the island count. Where the register has not named one and it lies mostly inside a wetland in the province’s Wetland With Significance dataset, the page names the wetland and the table of largest islands leaves it out. Wetland boundaries are mapped at their own scale and can cover a small island whole.
- Depth contours
- Each contour is drawn where the survey placed it, at the survey’s own positional accuracy. The survey carries its own shoreline, which differs from the Ontario Hydro Network’s outline, so a contour near the shore can run to or past the outline. Such a stretch is drawn along the outline, as a drawing convention, and is not the survey’s line there. The contour count in the stat band is the province’s, and it includes the survey’s own shoreline contour, one ring around the mainland and one around each charted island, which the map leaves off; the map’s small print gives the split.
- Location
- Municipal boundaries are read from the province’s records as published and can lag a boundary change.
- Fish
- Ontario’s fish records are compilations of existing knowledge from field biologists and do not represent exhaustive inventories. A species that is not listed was not ruled out. The species list carries one date for the whole record and none for any species.
- Spawning areas
- A spawning area is drawn where the province mapped it, at the province’s stated accuracy, and the record says nothing about how many fish use it in a given year. A nest record is one nest seen on one day; a count of nests is not a count of fish, and a count of records is not a comparison between species. Whether a given piece of work needs an authorization is a determination made by Fisheries and Oceans Canada on the work itself.
- Stocking
- A stocking record is a release on a date. It says nothing about how many fish survived or about the population in the lake today.
- Eating advice
- The guide’s advice is for fish taken from the lake at the tested location and applies to the size classes tested. The province’s guide is the authority and is updated each year.
- Fishing rules
- Seasons and limits are the zone’s, for the year of the dataset the page was built from, and a licence’s own conditions and any waterbody exception apply over them. The province’s regulations summary is the authority.
Where these figures come from
- Depth, shoreline, islands and named places: Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources bathymetry and the Ontario Hydro Network, © King’s Printer for Ontario, Open Government Licence – Ontario.
- Phosphorus and water clarity: Ontario Lake Partner Program, Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, Open Government Licence – Ontario. Extract built 2026-08-09.
- Aerial photography: Ontario Imagery Web Map Service, Open Government Licence – Ontario, drawing this frame from North Western Ontario Orthophotography Project 2022, Northwestern Ontario Orthophotography Project 2017, Forest Resources Inventory 2007-2011 and Sentinel 2 2025, satellite.
- Official names: Geographic Names Ontario, Ministry of Natural Resources, Open Government Licence – Ontario. Marinas: Overture Maps Foundation places data, CDLA-Permissive 2.0.
- Lake outline and municipal boundaries: Ontario Hydro Network and Ontario municipal boundary records, Ministry of Natural Resources, Open Government Licence – Ontario.
- Fish species and thermal regime: Ontario Aquatic Resource Area records. Spawning areas: Ontario Fish Activity Area records. Both Ministry of Natural Resources, Open Government Licence – Ontario.
- Stocking: Historical Fish Stocking Data and Fish Stocking Data for Recreational Purposes, Ministry of Natural Resources, Open Government Licence – Ontario.
- Consumption advice: Guide to Eating Ontario Fish advisory database, 2025 edition, Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, Open Government Licence – Ontario.
- Seasons and limits: Ontario recreational fishing regulations data, Ministry of Natural Resources, Open Government Licence – Ontario.
- Fish plates: Duane Raver, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Ellen Edmonson and Hugh Chrisp, New York State Conservation Department; Timothy Knepp, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. All public domain.