Cameron Lake carries no listed exception in the current synopsis, so the regional default applies: trout/char 5 daily in combination, no more than 1 over 50 cm. A freshwater licence is required for anglers 16 and over. Confirm current rules in the official synopsis before you fish.

Cameron Lake covers 35.4 hectares, with a maximum depth of 12.5 m and a mean depth of 4.2 m. A 1970 provincial reconnaissance survey (A Reconnaissance Survey of Cameron Lake) recorded a Secchi depth of 5.2 m and a surface pH of 7.4: a moderately clear, moderately productive basin, well within casting and light-troll range from shore or a small boat.

For an angler weighing whether the drive is worth it, the release record is the fishing report. Cameron Lake has 66 recorded releases between 1926 and 2026, splitting cleanly across three eras. From 1926 to 1981 it carried wild eyed-egg and fry transfers of Pennask, Beaver, Pinantan, Knouff and Spahomin Lake strain rainbow trout, standard mid-century BC stocking practice. From 1982 to 1999, Aylmer-strain brook trout were added on top (plus two small batches taken from Cameron Lake's own fish), totalling roughly 83,800 brook trout over 13 releases; none have gone in since. Since 2013, a rainbow trout yearling plant has landed every single year without a miss: Blackwater R strain fish, 5,500 to 6,153 a season, delivered alternately from the Dragon Lake and Premier Lake hatchery stations, the same broodstock program that seeds Premier Lake itself. Across all eras combined, rainbow trout account for 53 releases and roughly 324,000 fish.

That history is why the lake fishes the way it does today. Any brook trout you catch are residual, decades removed from the last plant in 1999; the rainbow trout are the live program, with a fresh cohort of Blackwater yearlings entering every June and growing on through the season on the lake's natural forage.

Work Cameron Lake on standard small-lake stillwater lines. In spring and fall, fish a chironomid under an indicator or a small balanced leech over the shoals and drop-offs. As the shallows warm through summer, push a full-sink line and a Woolly Bugger deeper along the drop-offs toward the lake's 12.5 m basin. A brook trout taken incidentally on the same water is a bonus from a program that ended in 1999, not something to plan a trip around.

Cameron Lake sits west of Upper Arrow Lake and northwest of Nakusp, in BC's West Kootenay. Confirm the boat launch, shoreline access and any seasonal or motor restrictions locally before you commit a day.