Manitoulin District, Ontario
Lake Wolsey
A maximum recorded depth of 25.1 meters, from 47,571 soundings taken in the province's 2006 survey, opening to the North Channel at the west end of Manitoulin Island. No aquatic resource record carries the lake's name.
- Surface
- 22.9 km²
- Shoreline
- 25 km
- Islands
- 0
- Max depth
- 25.1 m
- Soundings
- 47,571
All figures are derived from Ontario’s survey records.
Where Lake Wolsey is
Lake Wolsey lies in the District of Manitoulin, with shoreline in the Municipality of Gordon / Barrie Island and the Township of Burpee and Mills.
How deep is Lake Wolsey?
Lake Wolsey reaches a maximum recorded depth of 25.1 meters, determined from 47,571 soundings.
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.
Lake Wolsey has 13 Lake Partner monitoring sites. Eight have reported phosphorus for the three or more years the province requires before a status is assigned. Five of those sites are classified oligotrophic and three mesotrophic.
| Site | Location | Years | Last sampled | Classification |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6883/4 | Sein-SP4, S-central Reference | 5 | 2018 | oligotrophic |
| 6883/6 | Sein-Deep spot | 5 | 2018 | oligotrophic |
| 6883/5 | Sein-SP5-S end | 4 | 2018 | oligotrophic |
| 6883/1 | Sein-SP2, N end | 3 | 2018 | oligotrophic |
| 6883/18 | 30M South of Cage | 3 | 2018 | mesotrophic |
| 6883/19 | 30M North of Cage | 3 | 2018 | mesotrophic |
| 6883/2 | Sein-S end | 3 | 2014 | oligotrophic |
| 6883/20 | 30M East of Cage | 3 | 2018 | mesotrophic |
The longest record is held by site 6883/4 at Sein-SP4, S-central Reference, sampled over 5 springs to 2018. Its long-term mean phosphorus concentration is 7.6 micrograms per litre, within the oligotrophic band, which extends to 10.
Fish in Lake Wolsey
Ontario’s aquatic resource records list no species for Lake Wolsey. The province’s other records for the lake name two species, northern pike and rainbow trout. They appear in the records below.
Two species in the province’s records
Rainbow Trouttrout and whitefish
Northern Pikepike
Spawning areas
Ontario maps 3 fish spawning records within the Lake Wolsey outline, for two species, all of them mapped areas.
By number of records
By area mapped
- Northern Pike2 areas2.1 ha
- Rainbow Trout nursery1 area1.4 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.
Fisheries Management Zone 14
Lake Wolsey lies in Fisheries Management Zone 14. Ontario sets its fishing seasons and catch limits by zone.
| Species | Open season | Sport licence | Conservation licence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atlantic Salmon | Open all year | 1 | 0 |
| Brown Trout | Open all year | 5 | 2 |
| Channel Catfish | Open all year | 12 | 6 |
| Crappie | Open all year | 30 | 10 |
| Lake Herring (Cisco) | Open all year | 25 | 12 |
| Lake Trout | Jan. 1 – Sept. 30 & Dec. 1 – Dec. 31 | 2 | 1 |
| Lake Whitefish | Open all year | 12 | 6 |
| Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass or any combination | 4th Sat. in June – Nov. 30 | 3 | 1 |
| Muskellunge | 3rd Sat. in June – Dec. 15 | 1, must be greater than 137 cm (54 in.) | 0 |
| Northern Pike | Jan. 1 – Mar. 1 & May 1 – Dec. 31 | 2 in one day | Possession limit C – 2, not more than 1 greater than 86 cm (34 in.) |
| Pacific Salmon | Open all year | 5 | 2 |
| Rainbow Trout | Open all year | 2 | 1 |
| Sunfish | Open all year | 50 | 25 |
| Walleye and Sauger or any combination | Jan. 1 – Mar. 1 & May 1 – Dec. 31 | 2 in one day | Possession limit C – 2, none between 41-56 cm (16.1 – 22 in.), not more than 1 greater than 56 cm (22 in.) |
| Yellow Perch | Open all year | 25 in one day | Possession limit C – 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 Lake Wolsey.
Lake Wolsey Ice Fishing
An ice hut on Lake Wolsey must be removed by March 15. Lake Wolsey lies in fisheries management zone 14, 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 14 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 Lake Wolsey on any given day. Ontario publishes ice safety guidance for anyone going out on the ice, at ontario.ca.
Nearby lakes
- Lake Kagawong17 km away
- Mindemoya Lake27 km away
- Lake Manitou42 km away
- Lauzon Lake48 km away
Questions about Lake Wolsey
- How deep is Lake Wolsey?
Its maximum recorded depth is 25.1 meters.
- How big is Lake Wolsey?
Its surface covers 22.9 square kilometers, with 25 kilometers of shoreline.
A print of Lake Wolsey
Lake Wolsey has not yet been drawn as a print. The lakes drawn so far are on the lake maps page, and a print of Lake Wolsey can be requested by email; whether it can be drawn is confirmed before any payment.
Ask about a Lake Wolsey printLooking at a property on Lake Wolsey?
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 figures for Lake Wolsey 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 Lake Wolsey 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.
- Location
- Municipal boundaries are read from the province’s records as published and can lag a boundary change.
- Spawning areas
- A spawning area is drawn where the province mapped it, at the province’s stated accuracy, and the record says nothing about how many fish use it in a given year. A nest record is one nest seen on one day; a count of nests is not a count of fish, and a count of records is not a comparison between species. Whether a given piece of work needs an authorization is a determination made by Fisheries and Oceans Canada on the work itself.
- 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.
- 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 Central Ontario Orthophotography Project 2021 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.
- 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; Timothy Knepp, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. All public domain.
- Ice hut removal dates and registration: Ontario fishing regulations, read September 2026.