Great Online Map to Find Out Which Fish Species Are in Ontario Lakes

The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) oversees the Fish ON-Line tool for anglers. We no longer need to find an in-the-know local fisherman or resort owner to gather information about the various fishing lakes in Northwest Ontario. The tool provides a lot of information that was hard to find. Now information about the different species of fish found in a particular lake, fish stocked in lakes, regulations for the lakes, and some information about the lake itself is available online. In an area like Ontario's Sunset Country, where there are thousands upon thousands of lakes, the information is undoubtedly beneficial.

For example, take Red Lake. If you click on the Lake Depth Contours in the left-hand column, you can see the contours of Red Lake. Click the fish icon, and you'll see the surface area of the lake is 8838 ha, the maximum depth is 25.6 m, the average depth is 10.1 m, and it's in the Fisheries Management Zone 4. Click on the Regulations tab, and you'll see specific Red Lake fishing regulations and lake facts. Under the Fish tab, you'll see that Red Lake has Walleye, Lake Trout, Northern Pike, Muskie, Smallmouth Bass, Yellow Perch, Whitefish, Sauger, Rock Bass, Rainbow Smelt, White Sucker and Burbot.

You can quickly link to a popular waterway or search by lake, fish species, stocked water body, and GPS Coordinates. Use the Get Directions Tool to find your way around quite easily.

I did a quick test of the search by species. I chose Brook trout and set the parameters to 300 km around Ignace, Ontario. It showed me 137 lakes with brook trout in them in that radius.

While the map is imperfect in that it doesn't show all the lakes and their information, the 13,000 lakes it does have are certainly a significant amount!

You can show the following on the map:

• Water Body
• Fish Sanctuary
• Fishing Access Points
• Lake Depth Contours (For the bigger lakes)
• Fisheries Management Zones
• ServiceOntario Licence Issuers (You can easily order fishing licenses online if you don't want to go to a Service Ontario office or you can get one from a Northwestern Ontario tourist outfitter that sells licenses.)

All in all, it is a pretty impressive fishing information tool. If you are planning a fishing trip to Ontario, check out the Fish ON-Line website for more information on the lake you'll be fishing on. If you are looking for a fishing resort or lodge to stay at in Sunset Country, visit these tourist outfitters in Northwest Ontario or visit this Northern Ontario list of lakes to find out which lodge is on the lake you want to fish.

Find out more about the fishing lodges in Sunset Country

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