Muskrat Lake

Where Muskrat Lake is

Muskrat Lake lies in the County of Renfrew, within the Township of Whitewater Region.

How deep is Muskrat Lake?

The deepest mapped contour on Muskrat Lake is 64.0 meters, and the water within that boundary descends even farther. Ontario’s bathymetry record holds 12 depth contours for Muskrat Lake.

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 a water sample each spring for phosphorus analysis and measure water clarity through the summer with a Secchi disk.

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 spring phosphorus. Below 10 micrograms per litre is oligotrophic: clear water and low algae. From 10 to 20 is mesotrophic: moderately productive water, with more algae and weed growth than an oligotrophic lake but rarely a bloom. Above 20 is eutrophic: nutrient-rich water, prone to algal blooms and low oxygen at depth.

A Secchi disk is a 20 centimeter 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.

Muskrat Lake has 6 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 eutrophic.

The longest record is held by site 3401/2 at S end Near Cobden, sampled over 5 springs to 2010. Its long-term mean phosphorus concentration is 31.63 micrograms per litre, within the eutrophic band, which begins at 20. The site’s 22 clarity readings give a median Secchi depth of 1.5 meters.

Fish in Muskrat Lake

Ontario’s aquatic resource records name 33 fish species in Muskrat Lake. The province classes the lake as cold water. The record took effect on 15 November 2013, and it compiles what field biologists had reported by then. The province’s other records for the lake name two further species, brook trout and lake whitefish. They appear in the records below.

Fourteen of the 35 species in the province’s records

• Lake Trouttrout and whitefish
• Northern Pikepike
• Muskellungepike
• Walleyeperch
• Yellow Perchperch
• Smallmouth Basssunfish
• Largemouth Basssunfish
• Black Crappiesunfish
• Rock Basssunfish
• Pumpkinseedsunfish
• Bluegillsunfish
• Brown Bullheadcatfish
• Channel Catfishcatfish
• Lake Sturgeonother

Stocking history

Ontario’s stocking records for Muskrat Lake run from 1946 to 2015 and hold 63 releases. Walleye account for most of the fish: 7,850,000 released in nine of the years between 1946 and 1972. The last recorded release was 7,000 lake trout yearlings in 2015.

The province’s current stocking programme, recorded from 2016, lists 80,692 lake trout released into Muskrat Lake between 2016 and 2025.

Eating the fish

The 2025 Guide to Eating Ontario Fish carries consumption advice for eight species taken from Muskrat Lake, tested for contaminants at a sampling location in Westmeath & Ross Twps., Renfrew Co. Each figure below is the most meals a month the guide advises for a fish of that length. The advice 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 15

Muskrat Lake lies in Fisheries Management Zone 15. Ontario sets its fishing seasons and catch limits by zone. Zone 15 covers central Ontario from Georgian Bay to the Ottawa River, bounded to the north by the Pickerel River, Highway 522 and the northern edge of Algonquin Park. It takes in Parry Sound, Huntsville, Bracebridge, Bancroft, Pembroke and Renfrew, and the whole of Algonquin Provincial Park. The province describes it as a zone of many natural lake trout and brook trout lakes, with a well-developed road network and moderate angling effort.

The figures are the number of fish an angler may catch and keep in a day and have in possession, under a sport fishing licence and under a conservation licence. The rows are the whole zone’s, and they apply to every lake in it. No waterbody exception names Muskrat Lake.

Muskrat Lake Ice Fishing

An ice hut on Muskrat Lake must be removed by March 31. Muskrat Lake lies in fisheries management zone 15, one of the twenty zones Ontario sets its fishing rules by, and one removal date applies across the whole zone.

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 zone 15 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 Muskrat Lake on any given day. Ontario publishes ice safety guidance for anyone going out on the ice, at ontario.ca.

Islands and names

Muskrat Lake contains one island in the Ontario Hydro Network’s outline, of 0.1 hectare, none of them named in the province’s register.

Official names

Ontario’s geographic names register lists 4 official names on the water and its islands: three bays and one river. A further 1 named point stands on the mainland shore.

Bays 3

• Boyds Bay
• Lily Bay
• McNaughton Bay

Points on the shore 1

• Coffeys Point

Nearby lakes

• Lake Doré18 km away
• Constant Lake31 km away
• Lake Clear34 km away
• Golden Lake34 km away

All lakes

Questions about Muskrat Lake

• How deep is Muskrat Lake?

  Its deepest charted contour is 64 meters, and the water within it is deeper.

• How big is Muskrat Lake?

  Its surface covers 12.2 square kilometers, with 36 kilometers of shoreline and 1 islands.

• What fish are in Muskrat Lake?

  Ontario’s aquatic resource records name 33 species, among them lake trout, walleye, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, northern pike and muskellunge. The lake’s spawning, consumption and stocking records also name brook trout and lake whitefish.

• Is the water clear?

  All three monitoring sites with a phosphorus status are classified eutrophic, the most nutrient-rich of the province’s three bands.