Ontario Lake Depths

Field guide

Fish of Ontario lakes

The 20 fish recorded in the most Ontario lakes on this site. Each page maps every lake where the fish is recorded, shows when and how anglers catch it, how to tell it from its look-alikes, and how it lives. Lake counts come from the same records as the lake pages.

Smallmouth bassMicropterus dolomieu660 lakesNorthern pikeEsox lucius539 lakesYellow perchPerca flavescens441 lakesWalleyeSander vitreus425 lakesLargemouth bassMicropterus nigricans423 lakesLake troutSalvelinus namaycush370 lakesRock bassAmbloplites rupestris342 lakesBrook troutSalvelinus fontinalis253 lakesPumpkinseedLepomis gibbosus211 lakesBluegillLepomis macrochirus154 lakesCrappiePomoxis nigromaculatus129 lakesSplakeSalvelinus namaycush × Salvelinus fontinalis125 lakesMuskellungeEsox masquinongy115 lakesBullheadsAmeiurus nebulosus97 lakesBurbotLota lota88 lakesRainbow troutOncorhynchus mykiss83 lakesLake whitefishCoregonus clupeaformis82 lakesChannel catfishIctalurus punctatus66 lakesBrown troutSalmo trutta38 lakesBowfinAmia ocellicauda30 lakes

About this guide

Illustrations are AI-generated, not photographs, and not to scale. A lake that isn’t listed for a fish may still have it: records appear only where an angler has logged it. 1,347 lakes on this site have at least one angler catch report. Lake lists and trip figures come from trips anglers logged in Ontario’s Fish ON-Line app: self-reported, not a Ministry survey, with no sizes and no angler identities. Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Ontario (source).