White Lake

Where White Lake is

White Lake lies in the District of Thunder Bay.

How deep is White Lake?

The deepest mapped contour on White Lake is 45.7 meters, and the water within that boundary descends even farther. Ontario’s bathymetry record holds 137 depth contours for White Lake.

See also Ontario's Largest and Deepest Lakes

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 water samples for phosphorus analysis and measure water clarity through the summer with a Secchi disk. Most sites are sampled for phosphorus once a year, in spring, and some several times a year between spring and fall. Phosphorus in many lakes rises through the summer, so the two kinds of average are measured on different bases.

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 average phosphorus:

• Oligotrophic, below 10 micrograms per litre: clear water and low algae.
• Mesotrophic, from 10 to 20: moderately productive water, with more algae and weed growth than an oligotrophic lake but rarely a bloom.
• Eutrophic, above 20: nutrient-rich water, prone to algal blooms and low oxygen at depth.

White Lake has 1 Lake Partner monitoring site. It has reported phosphorus for the three or more years the province requires before a status is assigned, and is classified oligotrophic.

The longest record is held by site 5843/1 at Mid Lake, deep spot, with phosphorus sampled once a year over 22 years to 2025. Its long-term mean phosphorus concentration is 9.75 micrograms per litre, within the oligotrophic band, which extends to 10.

A Secchi disk is a 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.

The 234 clarity readings at site 5843/1 give a median Secchi depth of 3.4 meters.

Median Secchi depth by year at site 5843/1

See also Lake Water Quality and Blue-Green Algae in Ontario

Fish in White Lake

Ontario’s aquatic resource records name 13 fish species in White Lake.

Popular species in the province’s records

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

Spawning areas

Ontario maps 1 fish spawning record within the White Lake outline: 1 walleye spawning area covering 10.42 hectares.

By number of records

By area mapped

• Walleye1 area10.4 ha

The federal Fisheries Act prohibits the harmful alteration, disruption or destruction of fish habitat without an authorization, so a dock, dredging, infill or shoreline work at a mapped spawning area is reviewed on that basis.

Stocking history

Ontario’s stocking records for White Lake run from 1962 to 2013 and hold 8 releases. Lake Trout account for most of the fish: 25,459 released in six of the years between 1962 and 2013. The last recorded release was 25 lake trout adults in 2013.

The province’s record of stocking for recreational fishing, kept from 2016, lists no release into White Lake.

Eating the fish

The 2026 Guide to Eating Ontario Fish carries consumption advice for eight species taken from White Lake, tested for contaminants at a sampling location in Thunder Bay Dist. Each figure below is the most meals a month the guide advises for a fish of that length. Where mercury sets the advice, the figure 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 7

White Lake lies in Fisheries Management Zone 7. Ontario sets its fishing seasons and catch limits by zone.

Fisheries management zones around White Lake

See also Fishing Seasons in Ontario, Zone by Zone and Fish Stocking in Ontario Lakes

Islands and names

White Lake contains 41 islands in the Ontario Hydro Network’s outline, one of them over 10 hectares and sixteen under a tenth of a hectare. Windigo Island, at 51 hectares, is larger than the next ten together, which cover 29.

Official names

Ontario’s geographic names register lists 27 official names on the water and its islands: 10 islands, ten bays, two narrows, one point on an island and one river. A further 3 named points stand on the mainland shore.

Bays 10

• Babitabonanik Bay
• Chiefs Bay
• Clay Bay
• Giles Bay
• Ginozhe Bay
• Lampi's Bay
• North Bay
• Pickerel Bay
• Shabotik Bay
• Spruce Bay

Harbours, cuts and narrows 2

• Obawanga Narrows
• The Narrows

Points on the shore 3

• Burnt Point
• Graveyard Point
• Regan Point

Nearby lakes

• Kenogamisis Lake139 km away
• Missinaibi Lake151 km away
• Wildgoose Lake157 km away
• Lake Nipigon242 km away

All lakes

Questions about White Lake

• How deep is White Lake?

  Its deepest charted contour is 45.7 meters, and the water within it is deeper.

• How big is White Lake?

  Its surface covers 61.2 square kilometers and it holds 41 islands. Of its 189 kilometers of shoreline, 172 kilometers is the mainland shore and 17 kilometers is the shore of the islands.

• What fish are in White Lake?

  Ontario’s aquatic resource records name thirteen species, among them lake trout, walleye, northern pike, lake whitefish and yellow perch.

• Is the water clear?

  The one monitoring site with a phosphorus status is classified oligotrophic, the clearest of the province’s three bands.