Cordova Lake

Where Cordova Lake is

Cordova Lake lies in the County of Peterborough, within the Township of Havelock-Belmont-Methuen.

How deep is Cordova Lake?

The deepest mapped contour on Cordova Lake is 12.2 meters, and the water within that boundary descends even farther. Ontario’s bathymetry record holds 28 depth contours for Cordova Lake.

See also Ontario's Largest and Deepest Lakes

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 water samples for phosphorus analysis and measure water clarity through the summer with a Secchi disk. Most sites are sampled for phosphorus once a year, in spring, and some several times a year between spring and fall. Phosphorus in many lakes rises through the summer, so the two kinds of average are measured on different bases.

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 average phosphorus:

• Oligotrophic, below 10 micrograms per litre: clear water and low algae.
• Mesotrophic, from 10 to 20: moderately productive water, with more algae and weed growth than an oligotrophic lake but rarely a bloom.
• Eutrophic, above 20: nutrient-rich water, prone to algal blooms and low oxygen at depth.

Cordova Lake has 4 Lake Partner monitoring sites. Two have reported phosphorus for the three or more years the province requires before a status is assigned. One of those sites is classified oligotrophic and one mesotrophic.

The longest record is held by site 6957/2 at S end, dam, with phosphorus sampled once a year over 21 years to 2025. Its long-term mean phosphorus concentration is 9.09 micrograms per litre, within the oligotrophic band, which extends to 10.

A Secchi disk is a 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.

The 178 clarity readings at site 6957/2 give a median Secchi depth of 4.65 meters.

Median Secchi depth by year at site 6957/2

See also Lake Water Quality and Blue-Green Algae in Ontario

Fish in Cordova Lake

Ontario’s aquatic resource records name 16 fish species in Cordova Lake. The province’s other records for the lake name one further species, muskellunge. It appears in the records below.

Popular species in the province’s records

• Ciscotrout and whitefish
• Northern Pikepike
• Walleyeperch
• Yellow Perchperch
• Smallmouth Basssunfish
• Largemouth Basssunfish
• Rock Basssunfish
• Pumpkinseedsunfish

Stocking history

Ontario’s stocking records for Cordova Lake run from 1947 to 1990 and hold 71 releases. Muskellunge account for most of the fish: 902,384 released in 41 of the years between 1947 and 1990. The last recorded release was 20,000 muskellunge frys in 1990.

The province’s record of stocking for recreational fishing, kept from 2016, lists no release into Cordova Lake.

Eating the fish

The 2026 Guide to Eating Ontario Fish carries consumption advice for six species taken from Cordova Lake, tested for contaminants at a sampling location in Belmont Twp., Peterborough Co. Each figure below is the most meals a month the guide advises for a fish of that length. Where mercury sets the advice, the figure 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 17

Cordova Lake lies in Fisheries Management Zone 17. Ontario sets its fishing seasons and catch limits by zone.

Fisheries management zones around Cordova Lake

See also Fishing Seasons in Ontario, Zone by Zone and Fish Stocking in Ontario Lakes

Cordova Lake Ice Fishing

An ice hut on Cordova Lake must be removed by March 1. The province sets dates for ice hut removal as a safety measure to ensure huts are removed before thawing occurs. One date applies to an entire fisheries management zone (FMZ). Cordova Lake lies within FMZ 17.

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 FMZ 17 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 In / Out Date

No ice record is kept on Cordova Lake. The province’s nearest long record covers eight lakes near Dorset, about 114 kilometers away. It holds a date for every winter since 1975, observed by eye and from cameras set on the shore.

On those eight lakes the median date of complete ice cover is December 7 and the median date of complete ice loss is April 20, a median season of 134 days.

The date the ice forms has moved later through the record: a November 26 average across 1971 to 1980, and December 11 across 2011 to 2020. The date it leaves has moved by less than a day each decade over the same period. The two charts below are drawn to one scale of 26 days, so they can be read against each other.

Ice in date (eight lakes near Dorset, ON)

Ice out date (eight lakes near Dorset, ON)

Ice conditions

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

See also Lake Ice in Ontario

Islands and names

Cordova Lake contains 27 islands in the Ontario Hydro Network’s outline, zero of them over 10 hectares and seven under a tenth of a hectare.

Nearby lakes

• Belmont Lake8 km away
• Round Lake10 km away
• Crowe Lake12 km away
• Kasshabog Lake12 km away

All lakes

Questions about Cordova Lake

• How deep is Cordova Lake?

  Its deepest charted contour is 12.2 meters, and the water within it is deeper.

• How big is Cordova Lake?

  Its surface covers 2.6 square kilometers and it holds 27 islands. Of its 26 kilometers of shoreline, 18 kilometers is the mainland shore and 8 kilometers is the shore of the islands.

• What fish are in Cordova Lake?

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