Skiff Lake is a lake in Canterbury Parish, York County,

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

Location

Skiff Lake is a

glacier lake A glacial lake is a body of water with origins from glacier activity. They are formed when a glacier erodes the land and then melts, filling the depression created by the glacier. Formation Near the end of the last glacial period, roughly 10,0 ...

in southwestern

, Canada, near the village of Lakeland Ridges. There are 27 islands scattered throughout the lake. Surrounding the lake are large

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

boulders which may have been formed from one of the eruptions of

Mount Pleasant Caldera The Mount Pleasant Caldera is a large eroded Late Devonian volcanic caldera complex, located in the northern Appalachian Mountains of southwestern New Brunswick, Canada. It is one of few noticeable pre- Cenozoic calderas, and its formation is ass ...

History

Skiff Lake was named by

Lord Northcote Henry Stafford Northcote, 1st Baron Northcote, (18 November 1846 – 29 September 1911) was a British Conservative politician who served as the third governor-general of Australia, in office from 1904 to 1908. He was previously the governor of ...

in 18??, who paddled a

skiff A skiff is any of a variety of essentially unrelated styles of small boats. Traditionally, these are coastal craft or river craft used for leisure, as a utility craft, and for fishing, and have a one-person or small crew. Sailing skiffs have devel ...

over to an island that he had claimed. This island is now known as Northcote island. A cottage was built on Northcote island which was the first camp on an island on Skiff Lake. There is a camp named "Lady of the Lake" that is the oldest camp on the lake, on the eastern shore of the lake. There haves been several outfitters on Skiff Lake. These include: Crombies camps, Foulke Camps, Skiff Lake Outfitters, Skiff Lake Inn.

Fish species

Fish found in the lake include:

Land-locked salmon The Atlantic salmon (''Salmo salar'') is a species of ray-finned fish in the family Salmonidae. It is the third largest of the Salmonidae, behind Siberian taimen and Pacific Chinook salmon, growing up to a meter in length. Atlantic salmon are ...

, Smallmouth bass,

Brook trout The brook trout (''Salvelinus fontinalis'') is a species of freshwater fish in the char genus ''Salvelinus'' of the salmon family Salmonidae. It is native to Eastern North America in the United States and Canada, but has been introduced elsewhere ...

American eel The American eel (''Anguilla rostrata'') is a facultative catadromous fish found on the eastern coast of North America. Freshwater eels are fish belonging to the elopomorph superorder, a group of phylogenetically ancient teleosts. The America ...

, White perch,

white sucker The white sucker (''Catostomus commersonii)'' is a species of freshwater cypriniform fish inhabiting the upper Midwest and Northeast in North America, but it is also found as far south as Georgia and as far west as New Mexico. The fish is commonl ...

Burbot The burbot (''Lota lota'') is the only gadiform (cod-like) freshwater fish Freshwater fish are those that spend some or all of their lives in fresh water, such as rivers and lakes, with a salinity of less than 1.05%. These environments di ...

aka ''cusk'', Smelts, Sunfish, and pickerel.

Other animals

Non-fish species found on or around the lake include:

loon Loons (North American English) or divers (British / Irish English) are a group of aquatic birds found in much of North America and northern Eurasia. All living species of loons are members of the genus ''Gavia'', family Gaviidae and order Gavi ...

mallard The mallard () or wild duck (''Anas platyrhynchos'') is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Arge ...

, black duck, common merganser, tern, ruby-throated hummingbird,

common snapping turtle The common snapping turtle (''Chelydra serpentina'') is a species of large freshwater turtle in the family Chelydridae. Its natural range extends from southeastern Canada, southwest to the edge of the Rocky Mountains, as far east as Nova Scotia ...

red fox The red fox (''Vulpes vulpes'') is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed members of the Order (biology), order Carnivora, being present across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe ...

bald eagle The bald eagle (''Haliaeetus leucocephalus'') is a bird of prey found in North America. A sea eagle, it has two known subspecies and forms a species pair with the white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla''), which occupies the same niche as ...

, pileated woodpecker, white tail deer,

moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult mal ...

, black bear,

beaver Beavers are large, semiaquatic rodents in the genus ''Castor'' native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. There are two extant species: the North American beaver (''Castor canadensis'') and the Eurasian beaver (''C. fiber''). Beavers ar ...

, American mink,

blue jay The blue jay (''Cyanocitta cristata'') is a passerine bird in the family Corvidae, native to eastern North America. It lives in most of the eastern and central United States; some eastern populations may be migratory. Resident populations are a ...

, and

Canada goose The Canada goose (''Branta canadensis''), or Canadian goose, is a large wild goose with a black head and neck, white cheeks, white under its chin, and a brown body. It is native to the arctic and temperate regions of North America, and it is o ...

Myths and legends

There have long been rumours that Skiff Lake has its very own Nessy. This lake-locked serpent, affectionately referred to as Gertrude, is rumoured to have been upwards of thirty feet in length.

Ice out dates

Compiled by:
Harley Carr      1933-1952
Chas Webb      1950-1980
Bill Crossley    1953-1961
Gerald Lochart 1961-1972
Al Conklin        1973-2016
Gar Conklin      1973-2023
Chris Peabody      2018

References

External links

Franciscan Shrine

Pictures and videos

Skiff Lake Rainbows

Ice Run/Luge Winter Fun

Morning Glow

Skiff Lake YouTube Video
{{authority control Lakes of New Brunswick Landforms of York County, New Brunswick Tourist attractions in York County, New Brunswick