Lake of the Woods

Where Lake of the Woods is

Lake of the Woods lies in the District of Rainy River and the District of Kenora, with shoreline in the Township of Dawson, the Township of Sioux Narrows-Nestor Falls, the Township of Lake of the Woods and the City of Kenora.

How deep is Lake of the Woods?

Ontario’s digital bathymetry records hold no soundings and no depth contours within the Ontario Hydro Network’s outline of Lake of the Woods.

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.

Lake of the Woods has 139 Lake Partner monitoring sites. 55 have reported phosphorus for the three or more years the province requires before a status is assigned. Two of those sites are classified oligotrophic and 29 mesotrophic and 24 eutrophic.

The longest record is held by site 2473/12 at ClearWB-Mud Portage, with phosphorus sampled several times a year between spring and fall over 24 years to 2025. Its long-term mean phosphorus concentration is 15.83 micrograms per litre, within the mesotrophic band, which runs from 10 to 20.

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 278 clarity readings at site 2473/12 give a median Secchi depth of 3.0 meters.

Median Secchi depth by year at site 2473/12

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

Lake of the Woods Weather

The weather page for Lake of the Woods carries the forecast over the water, wave heights across the lake and at named places on it, the modelled water temperature, the level and any warnings in effect, updated four times a day from Environment and Climate Change Canada data.

Lake of the Woods weather

Fish in Lake of the Woods

Ontario’s aquatic resource records name 38 fish species in Lake of the Woods. The province’s other records for the lake name two further species. They appear in the records below.

Popular species in the province’s records

• Lake Trouttrout and whitefish
• Lake Whitefishtrout and whitefish
• Ciscotrout and whitefish
• Northern Pikepike
• Muskellungepike
• Walleyeperch
• Saugerperch
• Yellow Perchperch
• Smallmouth Basssunfish
• Largemouth Basssunfish
• Black Crappiesunfish
• Rock Basssunfish
• Pumpkinseedsunfish
• Burbotcod
• Brown Bullheadcatfish
• Lake Sturgeonother

Spawning areas

Ontario maps 459 fish spawning records within the Lake of the Woods outline, for ten different species, and all of them are mapped below.

By number of records

By area mapped

• Walleye193 areas127.5 ha
• Lake Trout96 areas56.7 ha
• Walleye nursery57 areas26.2 ha
• Northern Pike35 areas323.5 ha
• Lake Whitefish33 areas8.3 ha
• Sauger16 areas13.8 ha
• White Sucker13 areas4.0 ha
• Muskellunge12 areas11.8 ha
• Smallmouth Bass2 areas0.2 ha
• Yellow Perch1 area600 m²
• Shorthead Redhorse1 area0.4 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 Lake of the Woods run from 1946 to 1961 and hold 317 releases. Lake Whitefish account for most of the fish: 205,650,000 released in fourteen of the years between 1946 and 1961. The last recorded release was 4,000,000 walleye eyed eggs in 1961.

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

Eating the fish

The 2026 Guide to Eating Ontario Fish carries consumption advice for sixteen species taken from Lake of the Woods, 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. Where mercury sets the advice, the figure falls as the fish gets longer, because mercury accumulates over a fish’s life. Where the guide has no result yet for certain contaminants at a location, it sets a precautionary limit of 16 meals a month. 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 5

Lake of the Woods lies in Fisheries Management Zone 5. Ontario sets its fishing seasons and catch limits by zone.

Fisheries management zones around Lake of the Woods

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

Where a row reads zone-wide, the zone’s own season or limit above applies. Lake Trout: Fish or fish parts may not be possessed or used as bait. Lake Trout: Barbless hooks only, and for Lake Trout only one barbless hook may be used. Lake Trout: Possession and/or use of fish or fish parts as bait is prohibited from Jan. 1 – Fri. before 3rd Sat. in May. Lake Trout: Only barbless hooks may be used from Jan. 1 – Fri. before 3rd Sat. in May.

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

Lake of the Woods Ice Fishing

Ice In / Out Date

Ice has been recorded on Lake of the Woods in 24 winters between 1955 and 1994. The median date of complete ice cover is November 29 and the median date of complete ice loss is May 10, a median season of 162 days.

The longest recorded season is 187 days in 1979-80, and the shortest is 138 days in 1980-81.

Ice in to ice out by winter on Lake of the Woods

The record was contributed by W. R. Skinner, Environment Canada to the Global Lake and River Ice Phenology Database, and the ice was read at a weather station rather than from the middle of the lake. Observations were last contributed for 1994, and none have been added since.

Ice conditions

No public record reports the thickness or the condition of the ice on Lake of the Woods on any given day. Ontario publishes ice safety guidance for anyone going out on the ice, at ontario.ca.

See also Lake Ice in Ontario

Islands and names

Lake of the Woods contains 5,249 islands in the Ontario Hydro Network’s outline, 491 of them over 10 hectares and 2,028 under a tenth of a hectare. Seven of them lie mostly inside wetland the province’s Wetland With Significance dataset maps as marsh or fen.

Official names

Ontario’s geographic names register lists 616 official names on the water and its islands: 350 islands, 116 bays, five rocks, one harbour, sixteen narrows, 27 points on islands and two rivers. A further 49 named points stand on the mainland shore.

Bays 116

• Adams River Bay
• Andrew Bay
• Ash Bay
• Asmus Bay
• Astron Bay
• Atikaminike Bay
• Bald Indian Bay
• Basil Bay
• Bear Bay
• Big Camp Bay
• Big Traverse Bay
• Bishop Bay
• Boggy Bay
• Boot Bay
• Bottle Bay
• Brûlé Bay
• Bulman Bay
• Burrow Bay
• Cameron Bay
• Camp Bay
• Camp Ten Bay
• Clearwater Bay
• Clipper Bay
• Cloverleaf Bay
• Dawson Bay
• Deception Bay
• Deep Bay
• Deepwater Bay
• Deer Bay
• Devils Bay
• East Bay
• Echo Bay
• Gauthier Bay
• Ghost Bay
• Gohere Bay
• Golf Course Bay
• Gull Bay
• Hansens Bay
• Hanson Bay
• Hay Bay
• Jackpine Bay
• Keewatin Bay
• Kenora Bay
• Lily Pad Bay
• Little Poplar Bay
• Lobstick Bay
• Log Bay
• Long Bay
• Loon Bay
• Lowry Bay
• Matheson Bay
• Matheson Bay
• McCauley Bay
• Micrometer Bay
• Miles Bay
• Monument Bay
• Moore Bay
• Morton Bay
• Norman Bay
• Oak Bay
• Obabikon Bay
• Ogawa Bay
• Oscar's Bay
• Oshie Bay
• Outer Bay
• P.O.W. Bay
• Pine Portage Bay
• Poachers Bay
• Poplar Bay
• Portage Bay
• Portage Bay
• Ptarmigan Bay
• Purdy Bay
• Quandary Bay
• Quiet Bay
• Rat Portage Bay
• Red Cliff Bay
• Redwater Bay
• Redwing Bay
• Reedy Bay
• Regina Bay
• Rheault Bay
• Rice Bay
• Riches Bay
• Route Bay
• Rush Bay
• Sabaskong Bay
• Sabaskosing Bay
• Safety Bay
• Sammons Bay
• Sand Bay
• Sandy Bay
• Shipwreck Bay
• Snake Bay
• Splitrock Bay
• Spruce Portage Bay
• St. Mary's Bay
• Stevens Bay
• Stony Portage Bay
• Storm Bay
• Taylor Bay
• The Bowling Alley
• The Little Traverse
• Thunder Bay
• Trinity Bay
• Turtle Bay
• Verbena Bay
• White Partridge Bay
• Whitefish Bay
• Whiting Bay
• Wiley Bay
• Willow Bay
• Windy Bay
• Witch Bay
• Woodchuck Bay
• Yellow Girl Bay

Shoals and rocks 5

• Balancing Rock
• Gardners Monument
• Gull Rock
• Powassin Rock
• Wydemans Rock

Harbours, cuts and narrows 17

• Allans Narrows
• Barney Narrows
• Bells Harbour
• Big Marsh Narrows
• Big Narrows
• Camerons Narrows
• Fire Island Narrows
• Fish Narrows
• French Narrows
• French Portage Narrows
• Reed Narrows
• Rocky Narrows
• Sioux Narrows
• Splitrock Narrows
• The Narrows
• Treaty Narrows
• Whitefish Narrows

Points on the shore 49

• Bare Point
• Berry Point
• Bishop Point
• Brûlé Point
• Bunting's Point
• Camerons Point
• Carmichael Point
• Cat Point
• Chase Point
• Cyclone Point
• Elmo Point
• Gateway Point
• Heenan Point
• Kellys Point
• Last Point
• Machin Point
• Magnet Point
• Mamiou Point
• McCallum Point
• Mica Point
• Northwest Point
• Oak Point
• Paddle Point
• Picnic Point
• Picture Rock Point
• Pincushion Point
• Pipestone Point
• Pophams Point
• Rabbit Point
• Return Point
• Rocky Point
• Sand Point
• School House Point
• Separation Point
• Sherlock Point
• Sioux Point
• Spike Point
• Splitrock Point
• Spruce Point
• Starting Point
• Starting Point
• Toadstool Point
• Turtle Point
• Twin Point
• Victoria Point
• White Point
• Wiley Point
• Yellow Girl Point
• Yum Yum Point

Nearby lakes

• Kakagi Lake46 km away
• Lake Lulu54 km away
• Dryberry Lake55 km away
• Black Sturgeon Lakes61 km away

All lakes

Questions about Lake of the Woods

• How big is Lake of the Woods?

  The Ontario part of the lake covers 2,194.4 square kilometers and it holds 5,249 islands. Of its 7,123 kilometers of shoreline, 2,568 kilometers is the mainland shore and 4,555 kilometers is the shore of the islands.

• What fish are in Lake of the Woods?

  Ontario’s aquatic resource records name 38 species, among them lake trout, walleye, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, northern pike and muskellunge.