Black Sturgeon Lakes

Where Black Sturgeon Lakes is

Black Sturgeon Lakes lies in the District of Kenora, with shoreline in the City of Kenora.

How deep is Black Sturgeon Lakes?

The deepest mapped contour on Black Sturgeon Lakes is 30.5 meters, and the water within that boundary descends even farther. Ontario’s bathymetry record holds 92 depth contours for Black Sturgeon Lakes.

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.

Black Sturgeon Lakes has 16 Lake Partner monitoring sites. Ten have reported phosphorus for the three or more years the province requires before a status is assigned. All are classified mesotrophic.

The longest record is held by site 450/6 at UpperLk-EagleViewBay, with phosphorus sampled once a year over 22 years to 2025. Its long-term mean phosphorus concentration is 14.49 micrograms per litre, within the mesotrophic band, which runs from 10 to 20.

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 236 clarity readings at site 450/6 give a median Secchi depth of 2.3 meters.

Median Secchi depth by year at site 450/6

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

Fish in Black Sturgeon Lakes

Ontario’s aquatic resource records name 32 fish species in Black Sturgeon Lakes. The province’s other records for the lake name one further species, brown bullhead. It appears in the records below.

Popular species in the province’s records

• Lake Trouttrout and whitefish
• Lake Whitefishtrout and whitefish
• Ciscotrout and whitefish
• Northern Pikepike
• Muskellungepike
• Walleyeperch
• Saugerperch
• Yellow Perchperch
• Smallmouth Basssunfish
• Largemouth Basssunfish
• Black Crappiesunfish
• Rock Basssunfish
• Pumpkinseedsunfish
• Burbotcod
• Brown Bullheadcatfish
• Lake Sturgeonother

Spawning areas

Ontario maps 58 fish spawning records within the Black Sturgeon Lakes outline, for six different species, and all of them are mapped below.

By number of records

By area mapped

• Walleye23 areas14.9 ha
• Northern Pike18 areas30.1 ha
• Lake Whitefish8 areas1.2 ha
• Walleye nursery4 areas0.5 ha
• Northern Pike nursery2 areas24.4 ha
• Brown Bullhead1 area1.0 ha
• Sucker1 area0.2 ha
• Black Crappie1 area1.6 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 Black Sturgeon Lakes run from 1946 to 1957 and hold 5 releases. Walleye account for most of the fish: 3,350,000 released in five of the years between 1946 and 1957. The last recorded release was 1,200,000 walleye eggs in 1957.

The province’s record of stocking for recreational fishing, kept from 2016, lists no release into Black Sturgeon Lakes.

Eating the fish

The 2026 Guide to Eating Ontario Fish carries consumption advice for six species taken from Black Sturgeon Lakes, tested for contaminants at a sampling location in Pettypiece & Melick Twps., Kenora Dist. 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. Where the guide has no result yet for certain contaminants at a location, it sets a precautionary limit of 16 meals a month. 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 5

Black Sturgeon Lakes lies in Fisheries Management Zone 5. Ontario sets its fishing seasons and catch limits by zone.

Fisheries management zones around Black Sturgeon Lakes

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

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

Islands and names

Black Sturgeon Lakes contains 71 islands in the Ontario Hydro Network’s outline, two of them over 10 hectares and 34 under a tenth of a hectare.

Official names

Ontario’s geographic names register lists 5 official names on the water and its islands: 1 island, two bays, one narrows and one river. The register records the origin of one name: James Island, “After Samuel James, trapper and fur trader who owned and lived on the island circa 1910.”

Bays 2

• Long Tent Bay
• Rice Bay

Harbours, cuts and narrows 1

• Grassy Narrows

Nearby lakes

• Lake Lulu21 km away
• Malachi Lake41 km away
• Longpine Lake49 km away
• Dryberry Lake55 km away

All lakes

Questions about Black Sturgeon Lakes

• How deep is Black Sturgeon Lakes?

  Its deepest charted contour is 30.5 meters, and the water within it is deeper.

• How big is Black Sturgeon Lakes?

  Its surface covers 29.8 square kilometers and it holds 71 islands. Of its 142 kilometers of shoreline, 117 kilometers is the mainland shore and 25 kilometers is the shore of the islands.

• What fish are in Black Sturgeon Lakes?

  Ontario’s aquatic resource records name 32 species, among them lake trout, walleye, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, northern pike and muskellunge. The lake’s spawning, consumption and stocking records also name brown bullhead.

• Is the water clear?

  All ten monitoring sites with a phosphorus status are classified mesotrophic, the middle of the province’s three bands.