Kenora District, Ontario

White Otter Lake

Eighty-six square kilometers of cold water south of Ignace, with 56 islands and 238 kilometers of shoreline, charted to 48.8 meters across 177 depth lines. The aquatic resource record lists 20 species, lake trout and deepwater sculpin among them.

Surface: 86.3 km²
Shoreline: 238 km182 mainland + 56 islands
Islands: 56
Charted depth: 48.8 m
Depth contours: 177

All figures are derived from Ontario’s survey records.

Where White Otter Lake is

White Otter Lake lies in the District of Kenora.

How deep is White Otter Lake?

The deepest mapped contour on White Otter Lake is 48.8 meters, and the water within that boundary descends even farther. Ontario’s bathymetry record holds 177 depth contours for White Otter Lake.

The deepest charted contour on White Otter Lake, 48.8 meters. The circle marks the centre of that contour, and the water within it is deeper. Three contours reach this depth; the largest is marked. Of the survey’s 177 contours, 59 are its own shoreline contour, one ring around the mainland and one around each island it charted, and are left off, the outline being the Ontario Hydro Network’s; the other 118 depth contours are drawn where the province published them, and along the outline where the survey placed them beyond it. Outline from the Ontario Hydro Network. Each contour is labelled with its depth in meters; zoom in where they run close.

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.

White Otter Lake has 1 Lake Partner monitoring site, which has yet reported phosphorus for the three years the province requires before a status is assigned.

Fish in White Otter Lake

Ontario’s aquatic resource records name 20 fish species in White Otter Lake. The province classes the lake as cold water. The record took effect on 21 October 2019, and it compiles what field biologists had reported by then.

Eight of the twenty species in the province’s records

Lake Trouttrout and whitefish
Lake Whitefishtrout and whitefish
Ciscotrout and whitefish
Northern Pikepike
Walleyeperch
Yellow Perchperch
Smallmouth Basssunfish
Burbotcod

The other twelve species in the province’s records
Family	Species
Perch	iowa darter, johnny darter x tesselated darter, logperch
Sucker	white sucker
Minnow	golden shiner, lake chub
Sculpin	deepwater sculpin, mottled sculpin, sculpins, slimy sculpin
Stickleback	ninespine stickleback
Trout-perch	trout-perch

Eating the fish

The 2025 Guide to Eating Ontario Fish carries consumption advice for seven species taken from White Otter Lake, tested for contaminants at a sampling location in Kenora Dist. 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

Lake Trout Mercury, PCB
Length, cm	40 to 45	45 to 50	50 to 55	55 to 60	60 to 65	65 to 70	70 to 75	over 75
General population	12	12	8	8	8	8	4	4
Sensitive population	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	0

Lake Whitefish no contaminant listed
Length, cm	35 to 40	40 to 45	45 to 50	50 to 55	55 to 60
General population	32	32	32	32	32
Sensitive population	16	16	16	16	12

Walleye Mercury
Length, cm	15 to 20	20 to 25	25 to 30	30 to 35	35 to 40	40 to 45	45 to 50	50 to 55	55 to 60	60 to 65	65 to 70	70 to 75
General population	32	16	16	16	16	16	12	4	4	4	4	2
Sensitive population	12	8	8	8	8	8	4	0	0	0	0	0

Northern Pike Mercury
Length, cm	45 to 50	50 to 55	55 to 60	60 to 65	65 to 70	70 to 75	over 75
General population	16	16	12	8	8	4	2
Sensitive population	8	8	4	4	0	0	0

Smallmouth Bass Mercury
Length, cm	30 to 35	35 to 40	40 to 45	45 to 50
General population	16	12	8	8
Sensitive population	4	4	4	0

Burbot Mercury
Length, cm	45 to 50	50 to 55
General population	8	4
Sensitive population	4	0

White Sucker Mercury
Length, cm	25 to 30	30 to 35	35 to 40	40 to 45	45 to 50	50 to 55
General population	32	32	32	32	32	16
Sensitive population	32	32	16	16	12	8

Fisheries Management Zone 5

White Otter Lake lies in Fisheries Management Zone 5. Ontario sets its fishing seasons and catch limits by zone.

Zone 5 seasons and limits, 2026
Species	Open season	Sport licence	Conservation licence
Brook Trout	Open all year	5	2
Brown Trout	Open all year	5	2
Crappie	Open all year	10	5
Lake Trout	Jan. 1 – Sept. 30	2, not more than 1 greater than 56 cm (22 in.) from Sept. 1 – Sept. 30	1, no size limit
Lake Whitefish	Open all year	12	6
Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass or any combination	Open all year	4; Must be less than 35 cm (13.8 in.) from Jan. 1 – June 30	2; Must be less than 35 cm (13.8 in.) from Jan. 1 – June 30
Muskellunge	3rd Sat. in June – Dec. 15	1, must be greater than 102 cm (40 in.)	0
Northern Pike	Open all year	4; none greater than 75 cm (29.5 in.)	2; none greater than 75 cm (29.5 in.)
Rainbow Trout	Open all year	5	2
Splake	Open all year	5	2
Sunfish	Open all year	50	25
Walleye and Sauger or any combination	Jan. 1 – Apr. 14 & 3rd Sat. in May – Dec. 31	4, not more than 1 greater than 46 cm (18.1 in.)	2, not more than 1 greater than 46 cm (18.1 in.)
Yellow Perch	Open all year	50	25

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 White Otter Lake. Zone-wide, Smelt may not be used as bait or possessed for use as bait.

Fish sanctuaries recorded for White Otter Lake
Where	Closed
White Otter Lake (49°07’N., 91°52’W.)	No fishing from Apr. 1 – June 14

Islands and names

White Otter Lake contains 56 islands in the Ontario Hydro Network’s outline, nine of them over 10 hectares and twenty under a tenth of a hectare. Big Island, at 673 hectares, is larger than the next ten together, which cover 213.

The ten largest islands, numbered to the table. Areas are measured on the province’s outline.

The ten largest islands
	Island	Hectares
1	Big Island	673.4
2	unnamed	68.4
3	unnamed	23.4
4	unnamed	23.0
5	unnamed	21.4
6	unnamed	20.2
7	unnamed	18.2
8	unnamed	10.9
9	unnamed	10.1
10	unnamed	8.9

Official names

Ontario’s geographic names register lists 11 official names on the water and its islands: 4 islands, four bays and one narrows.

Bays 4

Ann Bay
Lost Bay
McOuat Bay
Walleye Bay

Harbours, cuts and narrows 1

Jackfish Narrows

Nearby lakes

Marmion Lake34 km away
Dinorwic Lake78 km away
Wabigoon Lake93 km away
Minnitaki Lake99 km away

All lakes

Questions about White Otter Lake

How deep is White Otter Lake?
Its deepest charted contour is 48.8 meters, and the water within it is deeper.
How big is White Otter Lake?
Its surface covers 86.3 square kilometers and it holds 56 islands. Of its 238 kilometers of shoreline, 182 kilometers is the mainland shore and 56 kilometers is the shore of the islands.
What fish are in White Otter Lake?
Ontario’s aquatic resource records name twenty species, among them lake trout, walleye, smallmouth bass, northern pike, lake whitefish and yellow perch.

A print of White Otter Lake

White Otter Lake has not yet been drawn as a print. The lakes drawn so far are on the lake maps page, and a print of White Otter Lake can be requested by email; whether it can be drawn is confirmed before any payment.

Ask about a White Otter Lake print

Looking at a property on White Otter Lake?

Depth and water quality are two records out of many. Our Rural & Cottage Buyer’s Report gathers what the public record holds about one specific address: shore road allowance, road access, wells, flood mapping, Crown land, wetlands and more, read and checked by a person before it is sent.

See what is in the report

What these figures do and do not say

Depth: A depth reading is the distance from the water surface on the day of survey to the lake bottom. Lake levels vary through the season and between years. The depth figure above is the deepest contour charted and is a minimum; the depth within it was not recorded. The figures for White Otter Lake are read from the province’s bathymetry records within the Ontario Hydro Network’s outline of the lake: the deepest figure is the deepest record inside that outline, and the count is every record inside it.
Shoreline and surface: The shoreline figure is the length of the mainland shore and of every island shore added together, measured on the Ontario Hydro Network’s outline of the lake. The surface figure is the area of water inside that outline, less the area of its islands. The provincial outline is mapped to within a few meters of the shore, and a shoreline measured from a coarser map comes out shorter, which is why a figure published elsewhere is often lower.
Survey coverage: Not every survey covered every arm of a lake, and the province’s index does not always record where a survey ended.
Water quality: Each figure belongs to a single monitoring site and not to the lake as a whole. A bay receiving a creek can read differently from open water half a kilometer away. Sites are matched to White Otter Lake by name in the province’s records.
Nearby lakes: Distances are measured between lake centres.
Islands and names: Islands are counted and measured on the Ontario Hydro Network outline; names are the register’s, placed by its own coordinate. The register names islands the outline draws as part of a larger one, and the outline holds islands the register has not named, so the two counts differ. The outline carries some lakes across marsh, so a gap in the marsh is drawn as land, and every such gap is included in the island count. Where the register has not named one and it lies mostly inside a wetland in the province’s Wetland With Significance dataset, the page names the wetland and the table of largest islands leaves it out. Wetland boundaries are mapped at their own scale and can cover a small island whole.
Depth contours: Each contour is drawn where the survey placed it, at the survey’s own positional accuracy. The survey carries its own shoreline, which differs from the Ontario Hydro Network’s outline, so a contour near the shore can run to or past the outline. Such a stretch is drawn along the outline, as a drawing convention, and is not the survey’s line there. The contour count in the stat band is the province’s, and it includes the survey’s own shoreline contour, one ring around the mainland and one around each charted island, which the map leaves off; the map’s small print gives the split.
Location: Municipal boundaries are read from the province’s records as published and can lag a boundary change.
Fish: Ontario’s fish records are compilations of existing knowledge from field biologists and do not represent exhaustive inventories. A species that is not listed was not ruled out. The species list carries one date for the whole record and none for any species.
Eating advice: The guide’s advice is for fish taken from the lake at the tested location and applies to the size classes tested. The province’s guide is the authority and is updated each year.
Fishing rules: Seasons and limits are the zone’s, for the year of the dataset the page was built from, and a licence’s own conditions and any waterbody exception apply over them. The province’s regulations summary is the authority.

Where these figures come from

Depth, shoreline, islands and named places: Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources bathymetry and the Ontario Hydro Network, © King’s Printer for Ontario, Open Government Licence – Ontario.
Phosphorus and water clarity: Ontario Lake Partner Program, Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, Open Government Licence – Ontario. Extract built 2026-08-09.
Aerial photography: Ontario Imagery Web Map Service, Open Government Licence – Ontario, drawing this frame from Forest Resources Inventory 2007-2011 and Sentinel 2 2025, satellite.
Official names: Geographic Names Ontario, Ministry of Natural Resources, Open Government Licence – Ontario. Marinas: Overture Maps Foundation places data, CDLA-Permissive 2.0.
Lake outline and municipal boundaries: Ontario Hydro Network and Ontario municipal boundary records, Ministry of Natural Resources, Open Government Licence – Ontario.
Fish species and thermal regime: Ontario Aquatic Resource Area records. Spawning areas: Ontario Fish Activity Area records. Both Ministry of Natural Resources, Open Government Licence – Ontario.
Consumption advice: Guide to Eating Ontario Fish advisory database, 2025 edition, Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, Open Government Licence – Ontario.
Seasons and limits: Ontario recreational fishing regulations data, Ministry of Natural Resources, Open Government Licence – Ontario.
Fish plates: Duane Raver, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Ellen Edmonson and Hugh Chrisp, New York State Conservation Department; Timothy Knepp, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. All public domain.