BC hosts over 20,000 waterbodies varying from pond-size to those with hundreds of miles of shoreline. It’s fairly safe to say that there are a few too many to ever fish in one’s lifetime. Some of the best fishing for trout and char occurs in the smaller lakes or stillwaters: those under about 1,000 acres in surface area. These smaller waterbodies, depending on geographic location, can be quite productive in terms of their ability to grow game fish. The majority of lakes in the province — particularly those in the northern half — support wild populations of rainbow trout and char. The Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC stocks about 900 lakes each year — mostly in the southern half of the province — with rainbow, cutthroat, kokanee and brook trout. The most productive lakes are located in the interior regions of the province in a band stretching from the southern Okanagan to the Peace River plateau.

Becoming a proficient fly-fisher on productive lakes means taking the time to learn how their ecosystems function. This includes the structure of the waterbody, what food sources are present, the preferred habitat of the trout, char and other game fish species, and the best times of the year to catch them. Lakes are much more secretive in terms of offering hints as to where the trout are going to be found compared with rivers and streams. There are no currents to dictate where fish can live or that determine prime aquatic invertebrate habitat. For these and other reasons many fly-fishers lack confidence when fishing lakes. We often refer to this as the “black hole syndrome.”