Timiskaming District, Ontario

Mistinikon Lake

Nearly thirteen square kilometers of cool water at Matachewan, with 51 islands, 119 kilometers of shoreline and a maximum recorded depth of 31.6 meters from 111,204 soundings taken in 2006. Twelve smallmouth bass spawning areas are mapped.

Surface: 12.6 km²
Shoreline: 119 km95 mainland + 24 islands
Islands: 51
Max depth: 31.6 m
Soundings: 111,204

All figures are derived from Ontario’s survey records.

Where Mistinikon Lake is

Mistinikon Lake lies in the District of Timiskaming, within the Township of Matachewan.

How deep is Mistinikon Lake?

Mistinikon Lake reaches a maximum recorded depth of 31.6 meters, determined from 111,204 soundings.

The deepest sounding on Mistinikon Lake, 31.6 meters, recorded 1 July 2006. Outline from the Ontario Hydro Network.

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 Mistinikon Lake is registered with the Lake Partner Program, so no phosphorus or clarity record exists for the lake.

Fish in Mistinikon Lake

Ontario’s aquatic resource records name 17 fish species in Mistinikon Lake. The province classes the lake as cool water. The record took effect on 19 December 2017, and it compiles what field biologists had reported by then.

Eight of the seventeen species in the province’s records

Lake Whitefishtrout and whitefish
Ciscotrout and whitefish
Northern Pikepike
Walleyeperch
Yellow Perchperch
Smallmouth Basssunfish
Rock Basssunfish
Burbotcod

The other nine species in the province’s records
Family	Species
Perch	johnny darter, logperch
Sucker	white sucker
Minnow	blacknose shiner, carps and minnows, common shiner, spottail shiner
Sculpin	spoonhead sculpin
Trout-perch	trout-perch

Spawning areas

Ontario maps 12 fish spawning records within the Mistinikon Lake outline: 12 smallmouth bass spawning areas covering 0.99 hectares. Every record is recorded as verified and presently suitable, and none is classed as sensitive.

By number of records

By area mapped

Smallmouth Bass12 areas1.0 ha

Spawning records mapped by the province within the Mistinikon Lake outline. A record under 100 square meters is drawn as a dot; a spawning area is drawn as the outline mapped. One colour per species, the same as the bars and the list above.

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 Mistinikon Lake run from 1949 to 1955 and hold 4 releases. Walleye account for most of the fish: 400,000 released in two of the years between 1949 and 1953. The last recorded release was 291 smallmouth bass juvenile/adults in 1955.

Fish released into Mistinikon Lake, 1949 to 1955
Species	Years	Years with a release	Fish released
Walleye	1949 to 1953	2	400,000
Smallmouth Bass	1954 to 1955	2	380

The province’s current stocking programme, recorded from 2016, lists no release into Mistinikon Lake.

Eating the fish

The 2025 Guide to Eating Ontario Fish carries consumption advice for three species taken from Mistinikon Lake, tested for contaminants at a sampling location in Baden Twp., Timiskaming 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

Walleye Mercury
Length, cm	20 to 25	25 to 30	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	8	8	8	8	4	4	4	4	4	2	0	0
Sensitive population	4	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Northern Pike Mercury, PCB
Length, cm	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	12	12	12	8	4	4	4	2	0
Sensitive population	8	4	4	0	0	0	0	0	0

Smallmouth Bass Mercury, PCB
Length, cm	20 to 25	25 to 30	30 to 35	35 to 40	40 to 45	45 to 50	50 to 55
General population	12	12	8	8	4	4	2
Sensitive population	8	4	0	0	0	0	0

Fisheries Management Zone 8

Mistinikon Lake lies in Fisheries Management Zone 8. Ontario sets its fishing seasons and catch limits by zone.

Zone 8 seasons and limits, 2026
Species	Open season	Sport licence	Conservation licence
Brook Trout	Jan. 1 – Sept. 15	5	2
Lake Sturgeon	Jan. 1 – Apr. 30 & July 1 – Dec. 31	0	0
Lake Trout	Feb. 15 – Mar. 15 & 3rd Sat. in May – Sept. 30	3	1
Lake Whitefish	Open all year	25	12
Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass or any combination	Open all year	6	2
Northern Pike	Open all year	6, not more than 2 greater than 61 cm (24 in.), of which not more than 1 is greater than 86 cm (33.9 in.)	2, not more than 1 greater than 61 cm (24 in.), none greater than 86 cm (33.9 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. No waterbody exception names Mistinikon Lake.

Islands and names

Mistinikon Lake contains 51 islands in the Ontario Hydro Network’s outline, two of them over 10 hectares and 25 under a tenth of a hectare. Bell Island, at 211 hectares, is larger than the next ten together, which cover 45.

The ten largest islands, numbered to the table. Areas are measured on the province’s outline.

The ten largest islands
	Island	Hectares
1	Bell Island	210.8
2	unnamed	16.7
3	unnamed	7.9
4	unnamed	6.2
5	unnamed	3.9
6	unnamed	3.3
7	unnamed	3.3
8	unnamed	1.4
9	unnamed	0.8
10	unnamed	0.7

Official names

Ontario’s geographic names register lists 3 official names on the water and its islands: 1 island.

Nearby lakes

Watabeag Lake32 km away
Kenogami Lake40 km away
Sesekinika Lake44 km away
Night Hawk Lake56 km away

All lakes

Questions about Mistinikon Lake

How deep is Mistinikon Lake?
Its maximum recorded depth is 31.6 meters.
How big is Mistinikon Lake?
Its surface covers 12.6 square kilometers and it holds 51 islands. Of its 119 kilometers of shoreline, 95 kilometers is the mainland shore and 24 kilometers is the shore of the islands.
What fish are in Mistinikon Lake?
Ontario’s aquatic resource records name seventeen species, among them walleye, smallmouth bass, northern pike, lake whitefish and yellow perch.

A print of Mistinikon Lake

Mistinikon Lake has not yet been drawn as a print. The lakes drawn so far are on the lake maps page, and a print of Mistinikon Lake can be requested by email; whether it can be drawn is confirmed before any payment.

Ask about a Mistinikon Lake print

Looking at a property on Mistinikon 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.

See what is in the report

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 figures for Mistinikon 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.
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.
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.
Aerial photography: Ontario Imagery Web Map Service, Open Government Licence – Ontario, drawing this frame from Central Ontario Orthophotography Project 2021, 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.