Wabaskang Lake

Where Wabaskang Lake is

Wabaskang Lake lies in the District of Kenora.

How deep is Wabaskang Lake?

The deepest mapped contour on Wabaskang Lake is 24.4 meters, and the water within that boundary descends even farther. Ontario’s bathymetry record holds 84 depth contours for Wabaskang 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.

Wabaskang Lake has 4 Lake Partner monitoring sites. Four have reported phosphorus for the three or more years the province requires before a status is assigned. All are classified mesotrophic.

The longest record is held by site 6787/1 at North basin, Deep Spot Wab-N, with phosphorus sampled once a year over 9 years to 2023. Its long-term mean phosphorus concentration is 12.94 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 5 clarity readings at site 6787/1 give a median Secchi depth of 3.5 meters.

Median Secchi depth by year at site 6787/1

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

Fish in Wabaskang Lake

Ontario’s aquatic resource records name 30 fish species in Wabaskang Lake.

Popular species in the province’s records

• Lake Trouttrout and whitefish
• Lake Whitefishtrout and whitefish
• Ciscotrout and whitefish
• Northern Pikepike
• Muskellungepike
• Walleyeperch
• Yellow Perchperch
• Smallmouth Basssunfish
• Black Crappiesunfish
• Pumpkinseedsunfish
• Burbotcod

Spawning areas

Ontario maps 5 fish spawning records within the Wabaskang Lake outline, for two different species, and all of them are mapped below. Every record is recorded as verified and presently suitable, and none is classed as sensitive.

By number of records

By area mapped

• Lake Trout4 areas9.7 ha
• Walleye1 area0.9 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 Wabaskang Lake run from 1949 to 1956 and hold 5 releases. Walleye account for most of the fish: 1,300,000 released in two of the years between 1949 and 1956. The last recorded release was 1,000,000 walleye eyed eggs in 1956.

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

Eating the fish

The 2026 Guide to Eating Ontario Fish carries consumption advice for four species taken from Wabaskang 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. 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 4

Wabaskang Lake lies in Fisheries Management Zone 4. Ontario sets its fishing seasons and catch limits by zone.

Fisheries management zones around Wabaskang Lake

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

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

Islands and names

Wabaskang Lake contains 48 islands in the Ontario Hydro Network’s outline, six of them over 10 hectares and seventeen under a tenth of a hectare.

Official names

Ontario’s geographic names register lists 5 official names on the water and its islands: three bays.

Bays 3

• Aerobus Bay
• Gawleys Bay
• McLeod Bay

Nearby lakes

• Lac Seul57 km away
• Eagle Lake79 km away
• Thunder Lake79 km away
• Wabigoon Lake83 km away

All lakes

Questions about Wabaskang Lake

• How deep is Wabaskang Lake?

  Its deepest charted contour is 24.4 meters, and the water within it is deeper.

• How big is Wabaskang Lake?

  Its surface covers 61.2 square kilometers and it holds 48 islands. Of its 195 kilometers of shoreline, 167 kilometers is the mainland shore and 28 kilometers is the shore of the islands.

• What fish are in Wabaskang Lake?

  Ontario’s aquatic resource records name 30 species, among them lake trout, walleye, smallmouth bass, northern pike, muskellunge and lake whitefish.

• Is the water clear?

  All four monitoring sites with a phosphorus status are classified mesotrophic, the middle of the province’s three bands.