Sudbury District, Ontario
Wanapitei Lake
Ninety-four islands across 133 square kilometers, and a deepest charted contour of 124.4 meters. Cold water, with a mean depth of 38.3 meters in the province's aquatic resource record.
- Surface
- 133.3 km²
- Shoreline
- 154 km112 mainland + 42 islands
- Islands
- 94
- Charted depth
- 124.4 m
- Depth contours
- 196
All figures are derived from Ontario’s survey records.
Where Wanapitei Lake is
Wanapitei Lake lies in the District of Sudbury, within the City of Greater Sudbury.
How deep is Wanapitei Lake?
The deepest mapped contour on Wanapitei Lake is 124.4 meters, and the water within that boundary descends even farther. Ontario’s bathymetry record holds 196 depth contours for Wanapitei Lake.
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.
No monitoring site on Wanapitei Lake is registered with the Lake Partner Program, so no phosphorus or clarity record exists for the lake.
Fish in Wanapitei Lake
Ontario’s aquatic resource records name 23 fish species in Wanapitei Lake. The province classes the lake as cold water. The record took effect on 16 October 2017, and it compiles what field biologists had reported by then.
Thirteen of the 23 species in the province’s records
Lake Trouttrout and whitefish
Brook Trouttrout and whitefish
Rainbow Trouttrout and whitefish
Lake Whitefishtrout and whitefish
Ciscotrout and whitefish
Atlantic Salmontrout and whitefish
Northern Pikepike
Walleyeperch
Yellow Perchperch
Smallmouth Basssunfish
Rock Basssunfish
Pumpkinseedsunfish
Burbotcod
| Family | Species |
|---|---|
| Perch | logperch |
| Sucker | longnose sucker, white sucker |
| Smelt | rainbow smelt |
| Minnow | common shiner, emerald shiner, lake chub |
| Sculpin | slimy sculpin |
| Stickleback | brook stickleback |
| Trout-perch | trout-perch |
Stocking history
Ontario’s stocking records for Wanapitei Lake run from 1946 to 2010 and hold 33 releases. Walleye account for most of the fish: 3,759,433 released in sixteen of the years between 1946 and 2010. The last recorded release was 500 walleye fingerlings in 2010.
| Species | Years | Years with a release | Fish released |
|---|---|---|---|
| Walleye | 1946 to 2010 | 16 | 3,759,433 |
| Lake Herring | 1951 to 1951 | 1 | 1,000,000 |
| Rainbow Trout | 1979 to 1979 | 1 | 97,000 |
| Smallmouth Bass | 1946 to 1953 | 5 | 26,000 |
| Lake Trout | 1949 to 1958 | 2 | 20,000 |
| Atlantic Salmon | 1952 to 1952 | 1 | 1,500 |
The province’s current stocking programme, recorded from 2016, lists no release into Wanapitei Lake.
Eating the fish
The 2025 Guide to Eating Ontario Fish carries consumption advice for eight species taken from Wanapitei Lake, tested for contaminants at a sampling location in Sudbury 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
| Length, cm | 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 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 12 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Sensitive population | 12 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Length, cm | 35 to 40 | 40 to 45 | 45 to 50 | 50 to 55 | 55 to 60 | 60 to 65 | 65 to 70 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General population | 32 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 32 | 16 | 12 |
| Sensitive population | 32 | 16 | 16 | 12 | 8 | 8 | 4 |
| Length, cm | 35 to 40 | 40 to 45 |
|---|---|---|
| General population | 16 | 12 |
| Sensitive population | 4 | 4 |
| Length, cm | 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 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 12 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sensitive population | 8 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Length, cm | 35 to 40 | 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 | 32 | 16 | 16 | 12 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| Sensitive population | 12 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Length, cm | 20 to 25 | 25 to 30 | 30 to 35 | 35 to 40 | 40 to 45 | 45 to 50 | 50 to 55 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| General population | 16 | 12 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 0 |
| Sensitive population | 4 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Length, cm | 35 to 40 | 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 | 16 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Sensitive population | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Length, cm | 50 to 55 | 55 to 60 |
|---|---|---|
| General population | 16 | 8 |
| Sensitive population | 4 | 4 |
Fisheries Management Zone 10
Wanapitei Lake lies in Fisheries Management Zone 10. Ontario sets its fishing seasons and catch limits by zone.
| Species | Open season | Sport licence | Conservation licence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atlantic Salmon | Jan. 1 – Sept. 30 | 1 | 0 |
| Brook Trout | Jan. 1 – Sept. 30 | 5 | 2 |
| Brown Trout | Open all year | 5 | 2 |
| Channel Catfish | Open all year | 12 | 6 |
| Crappie | Open all year | 30 | 10 |
| Lake Trout | Jan. 1 – Labour Day | 2, not more than 1 greater than 40 cm (15.7 in.) | 1 |
| Lake Whitefish | Open all year | 12 | 6 |
| Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass or any combination | 3rd Saturday in June – November 30 | 6 | 3 |
| Muskellunge | 3rd Sat. in June – Dec. 15 | 1, must be greater than 122 cm (48 in.) | 0 |
| Northern Pike | Open all year | 6; not more than 1 greater than 61 cm, none greater than 86 cm | 2; none greater than 61 cm |
| Pacific Salmon | Open all year | 5 | 2 |
| Rainbow Trout | Open all year | 2 | 1 |
| Splake | Open all year | 5 | 2 |
| Sunfish | Open all year | 50 | 25 |
| Walleye and Sauger or any combination | January 1 to the third Sunday in March and third Saturday in May to December 31 | 4, none greater than 46 cm | 2, none greater than 46 cm |
| 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.
| Species | Open season | Sport licence | Conservation licence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass or any combination | Open all year | Zone-wide | Zone-wide |
Where a row reads zone-wide, the zone’s own season or limit above applies.
Wanapitei Lake Ice Fishing
An ice hut on Wanapitei Lake must be removed by March 31. Wanapitei Lake lies in fisheries management zone 10, one of the twenty zones Ontario sets its fishing rules by, and one removal date applies across the whole zone.
An ice hut must also be removed before the ice breaks up, whether or not that date has passed. The deadline clears huts from the ice ahead of the thaw and does not close the fishing season.
Registration is required in zone 10 for an ice hut built of anything other than fabric, and for a fabric tent covering seven square meters or more. Registration is free, and the number is displayed on the outside of the hut.
Ice conditions
No public record reports the thickness or the condition of the ice on Wanapitei Lake on any given day. Ontario publishes ice safety guidance for anyone going out on the ice, at ontario.ca.
Islands and names
Wanapitei Lake contains 94 islands in the Ontario Hydro Network’s outline, seven of them over 10 hectares and 45 under a tenth of a hectare.
| Island | Hectares | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bonanza Island | 36.8 |
| 2 | A Island | 36.1 |
| 3 | Howie Island | 28.0 |
| 4 | Burnt Island | 20.6 |
| 5 | Oak Island | 14.3 |
| 6 | Finley Island | 13.6 |
| 7 | Wanapitei Island | 11.1 |
| 8 | unnamed | 6.5 |
| 9 | High Island | 6.3 |
| 10 | unnamed | 4.5 |
Official names
Ontario’s geographic names register lists 32 official names on the water and its islands: 15 islands, ten bays and five points on islands. A further 4 named points stand on the mainland shore.
Bays 10
- Boland's Bay
- Cochrane Bay
- Fredsons Bay
- Kolari Bay
- Massey Bay
- Outlet Bay
- Portage Bay
- Skead Bay
- Southeast Bay
- West Bay
Points on the shore 4
- Higgins Point
- McClouds Point
- Redrock Point
- Skead Point
Nearby lakes
- Kukagami Lake15 km away
- Ramsey Lake32 km away
- Richard Lake34 km away
- Nepahwin Lake35 km away
Questions about Wanapitei Lake
- How deep is Wanapitei Lake?
Its deepest charted contour is 124.4 meters, and the water within it is deeper.
- How big is Wanapitei Lake?
Its surface covers 133.3 square kilometers and it holds 94 islands. Of its 154 kilometers of shoreline, 112 kilometers is the mainland shore and 42 kilometers is the shore of the islands.
- What fish are in Wanapitei Lake?
Ontario’s aquatic resource records name 23 species, among them lake trout, walleye, smallmouth bass, northern pike, lake whitefish and yellow perch.
A print of Wanapitei Lake
Wanapitei Lake has not yet been drawn as a print. The lakes drawn so far are on the lake maps page, and a print of Wanapitei Lake can be requested by email; whether it can be drawn is confirmed before any payment.
Ask about a Wanapitei Lake printLooking at a property on Wanapitei 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.
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 Wanapitei 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.
- 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.
- Stocking
- A stocking record is a release on a date. It says nothing about how many fish survived or about the population in the lake today.
- 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.
- Ice hut rules
- Removal dates and registration rules are set by fisheries management zone and change from time to time. The dates here were read from the province in September 2026. The province’s own fishing regulations are 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.
- Aerial photography: Geospatial Ontario imagery, Open Government Licence – Ontario, released collections only.
- 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.
- Stocking: Historical Fish Stocking Data and Fish Stocking Data for Recreational Purposes, 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.
- Ice hut removal dates and registration: Ontario fishing regulations, read September 2026.