Sydney Lake

Sydney Lake Facts

Sydney Lake is a large deep lake in Northwestern Ontario Canada. The lake is 14.5 miles long and runs north east - south west.

Near the head of the system there are 20+ inflows from creeks plus the Sturgeon River via Kilburn Lake. There is one outlet at Sydney Falls which has a drop of 7 feet into Rowdy Lake.

The lake is charactarized by a large main lake with clear deep water surrounded by numerous darker shallow water bays.

Islands are concentrated in both the north and south ends of the lake.

The lake is only accessable by aircraft or via canoe portages with the closest road acessable park enterance located at Leano Lake 12 miles to the north.

Sydney Lake Data

Physical data for Sydney Lake, Kenora District - Northwestern Ontaio Canada. Sydney Lake was Named after Sydney Forester who surveyed the lake in 1926 for the Dominion of Canada.

LATITUDE 50`41'
LONGITUDE 94`25
SURFACE AREA 14,400 acres
VOLUME 938,211 acre feet
HEIGHT ABOVE SEA LEVEL 1150 feet
PERIMETER 113.5 miles
MAXIMUM DEPTH 240 feet
MEAN DEPTH 65 feet
ISLANDS 121
LENGTH 14.5 Miles
WIDTH 3.5 Miles

Lake Charactaristics

Thermal stratification was evident at the time of the survey. water temperatures ranged between 70`F. and 45`F. in the upper one hundred feet of water. The ten degree temperature drop (63`F. to 53`F.) between the twenty five and thirty five foot depths identified the thermocline, the layer of water in which there was the most rapid decrease in temperature.

The dissolved oxygen content varied very little to the depth of one hundred and twenty five feet, and ranged between 9.4 and 10.0 parts per million.

A surface 7.6 pH value showed an alkaline characteristic, in relation to the hydrogen ion composition in the water. A total dissolved solids concentration of 16 parts per million was determined from a surface conductivity reading.

Light penetration in this colorless water was indicated by the disappearance of a secchi disc, from view, 26.0 feet below the water surface.

Fish Species Present

Sydney Lake is a large, deep, cold water lake with a littoral zone covering forty percent of the area and providing habitat for both cold and warm water fish.

Lake trout, yellow pickerel (walleye), sauger, northern pike, lake whitefish, lake herring, burbot (lawyer or ling), white sucker, red sucker, blacknose shiner, spottail shiner, bluntnose minnow, fathead minnow, minespine stickleback, trout perch, and iowa darter.

The lake is located in Ontario's Trophy Waters which is a conservation fishing area that practices catch and release for larger fish abovve a slot size.

The primary gamefish are walleye, northern pike and lake trout. With proper angling technique numbers and size of sport fish caught are well above average for Northern Ontario.