Middle Shebandowan Lake

Where Middle Shebandowan Lake is

Middle Shebandowan Lake lies in the District of Thunder Bay.

How deep is Middle Shebandowan Lake?

The deepest mapped contour on Middle Shebandowan Lake is 24.4 meters, and the water within that boundary descends even farther. Ontario’s bathymetry record holds 36 depth contours for Middle Shebandowan 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.

Middle Shebandowan Lake has 3 Lake Partner monitoring sites. Three have reported phosphorus for the three or more years the province requires before a status is assigned. All are classified oligotrophic.

The longest record is held by site 3205/1 at Rossmere Bay, Mid-lake, with phosphorus sampled several times a year between spring and fall over 23 years to 2025. Its long-term mean phosphorus concentration is 9.44 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 109 clarity readings at site 3205/1 give a median Secchi depth of 3.3 meters.

Median Secchi depth by year at site 3205/1

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

Fish in Middle Shebandowan Lake

Ontario’s aquatic resource records name 17 fish species in Middle Shebandowan Lake.

Popular species in the province’s records

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

Spawning areas

Ontario maps 8 fish spawning records within the Middle Shebandowan Lake outline: 8 lake trout records of under 100 square meters each. Every record is recorded as verified and presently suitable, and none is classed as sensitive.

By number of records

By area mapped

• Lake Trout8 records600 m²

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.

Fisheries Management Zone 6

Middle Shebandowan Lake lies in Fisheries Management Zone 6. Ontario sets its fishing seasons and catch limits by zone.

Fisheries management zones around Middle Shebandowan Lake

Zone-wide, Smelt may not be used as bait or possessed for use as bait except where exceptions apply.

Where a row reads zone-wide, the zone’s own season or limit above applies.

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

Islands and names

Middle Shebandowan Lake contains 30 islands in the Ontario Hydro Network’s outline, zero of them over 10 hectares and sixteen under a tenth of a hectare.

Official names

Ontario’s geographic names register lists 13 official names on the water and its islands: 6 islands and four bays. A further 1 named point stands on the mainland shore.

Bays 4

• Kabaigon Bay
• Martin Bay
• Rossmere Bay
• Young Bay

Points on the shore 1

• Shebamboo Point

Nearby lakes

• Lower Shebandowan Lake9 km away
• Upper Shebandowan Lake14 km away
• Lac des Mille Lacs30 km away
• Whitefish Lake51 km away

All lakes

Questions about Middle Shebandowan Lake

• How deep is Middle Shebandowan Lake?

  Its deepest charted contour is 24.4 meters, and the water within it is deeper.

• How big is Middle Shebandowan Lake?

  Its surface covers 18.0 square kilometers and it holds 30 islands. Of its 63 kilometers of shoreline, 55 kilometers is the mainland shore and 8 kilometers is the shore of the islands.

• What fish are in Middle Shebandowan Lake?

  Ontario’s aquatic resource records name seventeen species, among them lake trout, walleye, smallmouth bass, northern pike, lake whitefish and yellow perch.

• Is the water clear?

  All three monitoring sites with a phosphorus status are classified oligotrophic, the clearest of the province’s three bands.