# Ohio's 7 natural lakes



## Elamenohpee (Nov 17, 2004)

I can only name 2, Geauga Lake and Punderson (and Erie doesn't count). Can anyone else add to this list and if so, how is the fishing in it?


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## Alter (Apr 8, 2004)

Twin Lakes. Not sure if they count as one or two 

Steve


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## Alter (Apr 8, 2004)

Congress Lake too.

I've not fished any of them so I'm no help there.

Steve


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## Alter (Apr 8, 2004)

Thought of another one: Nettle Lake.

Never fished there either 

Steve


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## catlover (Dec 7, 2004)

There was a thread awhile back about watershed and original glacier carved/fed lakes. If I remember, it was about the lakes around la so anne(sic) and the others around.. Got into antidiluvial whatnot, and all. It was kind of interesting. Thinking more, it might have been a link, rather than a thread. It was in the northern section of the "old" board. Probably close to three years ago.
Catz


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## Reel Man (Jul 4, 2004)

I think Punderson may be a natural lake.


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## Alter (Apr 8, 2004)

Chippewa Lake is natural too. I think Spingfield Lake (the one in Summit Co. ) is a kettle lake as well. Not fished either lake.

Indian Lake used to be a bunch of natural lakes before they were connected to make one big lake...I've actually fished there but I guess Indian Lake doesn't count 

Steve


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## Alter (Apr 8, 2004)

Ok, I've resorted to google to find all of Ohio's public natural lakes. Here they are:

Note: Some of these might be better defined as ponds but I listed them all anyway.

Alder Pond in Summit
Brady Lake in Portage
Camden Res. in Lorain
Crystal Lake in Portage
East Res. in Summit
Sunny Lake in Portage
Lake Anna in Summit
Lake Aquilla in Geauga
Lake George in Portage
Lake Nesmith in Summit
Lake Pippen in Portage
Long Lake in Summit
Mud Lake in Summit
Muzzy Lake in Portage
Nettle Lake in Williams
North Res. in Summit
Punderson Lake in Geauga
Sippo Lake in Stark
Springfield Lake in Summit
Stage's Pond in Pickaway
Summit Lake in Summit
Toussaint Lake in Ottawa
Turkeyfoot Lake in Summit
West Res. in Summit

I got this list from the "1996 Ohio Water Resource Inventory:Volume 3: Ohio's Public Lakes,Ponds, & Reservoirs" released by the Ohio EPA. You can view it at http://www.epa.state.oh.us/dsw/documents/96vol3.pdf


There are only 7 natural lakes listed on one of the tables but the rest are listed in the appendix at the end.

There are others like Chippewa and Twin Lakes that aren't listed since they are privately owned.


My google Kung-Fu is still strong 

Steve


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## reel (Dec 15, 2004)

I always thought Meyers Lake in Canton was the furtherest south, glacier made ?
Just a guess from memory ?


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## Alter (Apr 8, 2004)

Stage's Pond in Pickaway is a kettle lake (glacier made). Pickaway County is south of Columbus.

Steve


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## AndroDoug (Apr 12, 2004)

Here are 3 big ones not on the list... Aurora Pond is the largest natural lake in Ohio at 260 acres. Followed next by Wingfoot lake in Portage county at 240 acres. The next 2 lakes on the list are at 200 acres even which are Congress lake and Springfield (both mentioned) as well as Punderson at 180. But don't forget about Lake Hodgson in Ravenna at 160 acres either.

These are the top 6 lakes in size. There WAS a thread a while back (might have been on GFO) that had a link to a list of all of Ohio's natural lakes and their acreages. That list you found represents only a small portion of the natural lakes, there are many more.

Sippo is natural too, in Canton. As is Bass lake and Lake Aquila in Geauga county. But one thing to remember, almost all of these lakes are "enhanced" with dams that add a few feet to as much as 10 feet of depth, and there fore increase the size of water acreage. The reason for this is that natural kettle lakes had swampy shorelines encroached by floating spaghum moss mats. The levels were raised to flood this area to bring the shorelines up to "solid land" to build on.

My favorite fishing lake of all time is Congress Lake in Hartville (#3 on the list), but it is private. If you look at my photo album, all of those 4, 5, and 6 pound bass were caught at Congress.

On a side note, I think Pine ( as well as Evans ) are both reservoirs and NOT natural. And as far as I know, the furthest south the Glaciers made it was the Canton area. I was not aware of any age that made it as far south south as Pickaway. The last glacier to come this far south was called the Kent Glacier of the Wisconson age, and is the one that is responsible for most, if not all of the natural lakes in Summit and Portage. There was one more that came down as far as Northern portage and summit/geauga/Ashatabula, but I don not know the name of that one. The morrain left by it is what we call the primary snow belt, the secondary snowbelt is the morrain left by the kent glacier.


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## catking (Apr 5, 2004)

Sharonwoods lake in Hamilton County is the farthest lake south that was dug by glacial ice. This is located by Cincinnati.There is a large bronze plaque that tells all located down where the spillway is. They re-worked this lake about 10 or so years ago . It's one of many Hamilton County park distric lakes. Also, Cedar Lake, which is now a pay lake, in Clermont county , is the oldest man made lake in Ohio. Both these facts are well documented. Don't know why Sharon Lake isn't showing up. Possibly because it's so small ? Maybe 75 acres or so.......... CATKING


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## Alter (Apr 8, 2004)

Sharonwoods lake is not listed as a natural lake it is listed as a dug impoundment. It was once a kettle lake but it has been improved so the lake is no longer technically classified as a natural lake. It is/was the most southerly kettle lake.



> But one thing to remember, almost all of these lakes are "enhanced" with dams that add a few feet to as much as 10 feet of depth, and there fore increase the size of water acreage.


I didn't figure we would list these as *NATURAL LAKES* since they're not natural anymore. 

The 1996 listing only classifies 446 public lakes out of 2200+ lakes over 5 acreas so it looks like there may be some not on the list. However, the other natural lakes mentioned thus far (those not on the list) have been privately owned (Aurora, Chippewa, etc.).




> And as far as I know, the furthest south the Glaciers made it was the Canton area. I was not aware of any age that made it as far south south as Pickaway.


Well, I'm no expert on the glaciation of Ohio either but I know the Wisconsinan glacier limit stretch far into SW Ohio and central Ohio. The Miami lobe of the glacier stretched all the way to Cinci if I remember my geology classes (which I might not ). The Scioto lobe reached south of Columbus.

Steve


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## JIG (Nov 2, 2004)

I Thought That Most Of Our Lakes In Ohio Were Natural As Far As The Ground There On. As Glaciers Moved South They Formed Pockets
Or Wetlands. I Know The Army Built Alot Of Dams But West Branch Was A Glacier Formation. Later Alot Of There Res.(dont Know About The Natural Lakes) Were Mined For Salt Because Of 
Glaciers Deposit. One Was Between Ravenna And Levittsburg. :d


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## Dave_E (Apr 6, 2004)

Here's a small map I found of Glaciers in Ohio.
FYI...Meyers Lake in Canton in also a natural, spring fed lake.


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## Brentbrown22 (Sep 18, 2013)

Congress is awesome


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## Lowell H Turner (Feb 22, 2011)

If you`ve ever read "The Frontiersman", it mentions Lake Lagonda, which formed behind the "narrows" of the Mad River approximately where US 68 now crosses the Mad River on the SW corner of Springfield Ohio. Believe the lake was periodic, ie, was naturally dammed by snags washing down stream in the spring floods into the boulder field there at that time and further enlargened by beavers further damming it. At various times it formed the southern edge of Cedar Bog, which then was 8,000+ square acres and at least in the spring the lake swallowed most of the banks of the Mad River. The northern end of the lake was quite shallow and the entire area was malarial during the summer.


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## Fish_Heads (Jun 2, 2008)

Odells lake near Lakeville Oh is another one.


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## FOSR (Apr 16, 2008)

Then there was Lake Tight, created by ice dams. If I could time-travel, I'd go back to see what it looked like when that let go.


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## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

Alter said:


> Sharonwoods lake is not listed as a natural lake it is listed as a dug impoundment. It was once a kettle lake but it has been improved so the lake is no longer technically classified as a natural lake. It is/was the most southerly kettle lake.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


The glaciers did make it down almost to Cinci (they stopped right around Sharon Woods I believe). The glacial deposits account for the many terraces and gravel pits in the river valleys. That said, I'm pretty sure Sharon Woods Lake is just a damned up portion of Sharon Creek though? It was made for recreational purposes in the 1930's, if I remember correctly.
EDIT: There are some sink holes near Winton Woods, maybe you are thinking of that? Not Winton Woods Lake itself though, which is a flood control reservoir dammed up from West Fork Mill Creek.


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## Ripley (May 10, 2010)

i thought lake roaming rock up off route 6 in roaming shores ... rock creek area...


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