A remote stillwater in the McGillivray Range between Cranbrook and Lake Koocanusa, reached by a rough forest-service-road drive from Jaffray. No stocking truck comes here: the rainbow and westslope cutthroat are a wild, self-sustaining population, small but plentiful, and eager to a dry fly once the shoals warm.

Cherry Lake is not individually listed in the synopsis, so only the provincial and Region 4 regional defaults apply: trout/char daily quota 5 (no more than 1 rainbow or cutthroat over 50 cm), and a valid freshwater licence for anglers 16 and up. Confirm the current synopsis before you fish.

Cherry Lake sits at 1,227 m elevation in the McGillivray Range, between Cranbrook and Lake Koocanusa. It covers roughly 38.4 hectares, running to a maximum depth of about 13 m and a mean depth of about 6.6 m, deep enough to hold fish through the heat of summer without a full shoal-to-shoal warm-up. The country around it is rugged and lightly travelled, and the lake doubles as a favourite fall base camp for local hunters.

There is no hatchery truck behind this fishery: Cherry Lake carries a wild, self-sustaining population of rainbow trout and westslope cutthroat trout, numerous but small at 20 to 30 cm, and eager surface feeders once the shoals warm. Pale Morning Duns, Blue-Winged Olives and Tom Thumbs in sizes 12 to 16 all take fish confidently on top. If the rise slows, work the southwest end near the drop-off with a Prince Nymph or Hare's Ear in sizes 10 to 14, fished from the shallows down into deeper water. It is textbook small-lake stillwater fishing, close in spirit to the dry-fly approach anglers use on small East Kootenay cutthroat streams.

Cherry Lake is remote. From Jaffray, follow the Jaffray/Baynes Lake Road south 16.3 km to the Kikomun Road junction (Four Corners), then west on Kikomun Road 5.7 km across the single-lane Bailey bridge, then onto the signed Caven Creek Forest Service Road for 23.2 km to the signed Cherry Lake FSR junction (just past the 38 km marker), then 3.8 km to the Cherry Lake Forest Recreation Site. The road can be rough; a high-clearance vehicle is recommended. The site itself has a small cleared tent area and a small cartop boat launch, with no other facilities.