Varty Lake

Where Varty Lake is

Varty Lake lies in the County of Lennox and Addington, within the Township of Stone Mills.

How deep is Varty Lake?

The deepest mapped contour on Varty Lake is 3.0 meters, and the water within that boundary descends even farther. Ontario’s bathymetry record holds 3 depth contours for Varty 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.

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

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.

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

Fish in Varty Lake

Ontario’s aquatic resource records name 7 fish species in Varty 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

• Northern Pikepike
• Smallmouth Basssunfish
• Largemouth Basssunfish
• Rock Basssunfish
• Pumpkinseedsunfish
• Brown Bullheadcatfish

Stocking history

Ontario’s stocking records for Varty Lake run from 1951 to 1962 and hold 15 releases. Muskellunge account for most of the fish: 60,500 released in four of the years between 1959 and 1962. The last recorded release was 20,000 muskellunge frys in 1962.

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

Fisheries Management Zone 18

Varty Lake lies in Fisheries Management Zone 18. Ontario sets its fishing seasons and catch limits by zone.

Fisheries management zones around Varty Lake

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

Varty Lake Ice Fishing

An ice hut on Varty Lake must be removed by March 15. 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). Varty Lake lies within FMZ 18.

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 18 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 Varty 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

Varty Lake contains four islands in the Ontario Hydro Network’s outline, none of them named in the province’s register. Two of them lie mostly inside wetland the province’s Wetland With Significance dataset maps as marsh.

Nearby lakes

• Sydenham Lake22 km away
• Desert Lake25 km away
• Loughborough Lake32 km away
• Eagle Lake34 km away

All lakes

Questions about Varty Lake

• How deep is Varty Lake?

  Its deepest charted contour is 3 meters, and the water within it is deeper.

• How big is Varty Lake?

  Its surface covers 6.1 square kilometers, with 20 kilometers of shoreline and 4 islands.

• What fish are in Varty Lake?

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