Christie Lake

Where Christie Lake is

Christie Lake lies in the County of Lanark, within the Township of Tay Valley.

How deep is Christie Lake?

The deepest mapped contour on Christie Lake is 18.3 meters, and the water within that boundary descends even farther. Ontario’s bathymetry record holds 46 depth contours for Christie 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.

Christie Lake has 3 Lake Partner monitoring sites. Two 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 6952/3 at North Shore, deep spot, with phosphorus sampled once a year over 5 years to 2016. Its long-term mean phosphorus concentration is 9.18 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 2 clarity readings at site 6952/3 give a median Secchi depth of 6.1 meters.

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

Christie Lake Weather

The weather page for Christie Lake carries the forecast over the water, wave heights across the lake, the modelled water temperature, and the water level.

Christie Lake weather

Water temperature

No provincial monitoring station records water temperature on Christie Lake. The LastLake model computes the temperature of its surface water for each day from the daily mean air temperature at Environment Canada’s Appleton climate station, 50 kilometers from the lake, or the next nearest station when its record is incomplete, and from the lake’s area of 647 hectares and its mean depth of 8.5 meters.

Each day’s figure carries the model’s typical error for that month on lakes of the same size. The figure in the chart below is the temperature near the surface, away from the shoreline. Bays, shallows and water deeper below the surface differ in temperature. Temperature is not measured when ice covers the lake. The weather page for Christie Lake carries the model’s figures for the past weeks and the coming week.

See also Lake Water Temperature in Ontario

Christie Lake Water Level

Parks Canada measures the level of Christie Lake at a gauge on the lake, on the Rideau Canal, and posts one reading each weekday. The record below holds every reading since 1 January 2026, set against Parks Canada’s average, highest and lowest level for each day of the year.

Readings are provisional, posted by Parks Canada on weekdays, and are not intended for flood warning.

Fish in Christie Lake

Ontario’s aquatic resource records name 29 fish species in Christie Lake.

Popular species in the province’s records

• Ciscotrout and whitefish
• Northern Pikepike
• Walleyeperch
• Yellow Perchperch
• Smallmouth Basssunfish
• Largemouth Basssunfish
• Black Crappiesunfish
• Rock Basssunfish
• Pumpkinseedsunfish
• Bluegillsunfish
• Burbotcod
• Brown Bullheadcatfish

Spawning areas

Ontario maps 7 fish spawning records within the Christie Lake outline, for two different species. One is records of under 100 square meters each, and the other six are mapped areas. Every record is recorded as verified and presently suitable, and none is classed as sensitive.

By number of records

By area mapped

• Smallmouth Bass6 areas13.1 ha
• Bluntnose Minnow nursery1 records100 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.

Stocking history

Ontario’s stocking records for Christie Lake run from 1946 to 1979 and hold 63 releases. Walleye account for most of the fish: 14,850,000 released in 22 of the years between 1947 and 1979. The last recorded release was 1,000,000 walleye eggs in 1979.

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

Eating the fish

The 2026 Guide to Eating Ontario Fish carries consumption advice for eleven species taken from Christie Lake, tested for contaminants at a sampling location in Bathurst Twp., Lanark 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 18

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

Fisheries management zones around Christie Lake

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

Christie Lake Ice Fishing

An ice hut on Christie 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). Christie 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 Christie 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 and When the Lakes Will Freeze This Winter

Islands and names

Christie Lake contains 28 islands in the Ontario Hydro Network’s outline, zero of them over 10 hectares and eleven under a tenth of a hectare.

Official names

Ontario’s geographic names register lists 16 official names on the water and its islands: 13 islands and three bays. A further 4 named points stand on the mainland shore.

Bays 3

• McManus Bay
• Spring Bay
• Station Bay

Points on the shore 4

• Danners Point
• McManus Point
• Ottawa Point
• Picnic Point

Nearby lakes

• Silver Lake13 km away
• Crow Lake17 km away
• Big Rideau Lake18 km away
• Sharbot Lake20 km away

All lakes

Questions about Christie Lake

• How deep is Christie Lake?

  Its deepest charted contour is 18.3 meters, and the water within it is deeper.

• How big is Christie Lake?

  Its surface covers 6.5 square kilometers and it holds 28 islands. Of its 33 kilometers of shoreline, 26 kilometers is the mainland shore and 7 kilometers is the shore of the islands.

• What fish are in Christie Lake?

  Ontario’s aquatic resource records name 29 species, among them walleye, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, northern pike, yellow perch and black crappie.

• Is the water clear?

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