Community Lake holds its ice into May, high in the forest north of Heffley, and then in early June it makes up for lost time with a caddis hatch that brings rainbows to the top for a dry fly. It is a small lake at the end of a rough, potholed road, and that is a large part of its appeal.
The shape is simple. It is a single small basin, and your way in is the recreation site on its south-west corner, with a launch, a wharf and a handful of campsites. Around it lies a cluster of other high lakes, and Community is a good base for finding them.
Start at the south-west corner. Launch a canoe or float tube at the recreation site and work along the shoreline from there, looking for the edge where the shallows give way to darker water. You read this lake as you go, and on a lake this size you can work the whole shore in a day and come back to the stretch that moved fish.
The caddis in early June is the reward. Lake sedges tend to skitter across the surface as they hatch, and the rainbows chase them, so this is the week to bring a floating line and a box of sedges. Outside the hatch, the lake keeps producing through the summer.
The lakes around it are worth a look. Sullivan Lake and the Badger Lakes are close by, and Knouff Lake, on the road up, is where the green sedge that seeded Paul Lake’s hatch was carried from almost a century ago.
Fish in this water
Each fish is rated by its strongest evidence. A rating says how sure we are a fish is here, not how many there are, whether it is worth fishing for or whether you may keep it.
Likely
Older records here, recent stocking, a local guide or fly shop, a guide listing, or recent records on connected water nearby.
How to fish it
During the hatch, cast a deer-hair sedge near a rise and let it sit, then twitch it or skate it a short way across the surface. If fish swirl at it without taking, change to a sedge pupa on an intermediate line and retrieve it in quick, short pulls just under the surface. Outside the hatch, fish a leech or chironomid pupa along the drop-offs and change depth before you change flies. You may fish only one fly on the line, on a single hook; when it stops working, change it.
Access and safety
From Kamloops, drive north on Highway 5, turn east on the Heffley-Louis Creek Road, then turn north on the Knouff Lake Road. About 9 km along it, take the signed Community Lake Road for almost 6 km to the lake. The road has potholes, and a truck is recommended for the last stretch. The recreation site has a boat launch, a wharf, pit toilets and tent sites, and dogs must be leashed. Dress for the altitude: nights can be cold even in summer.
Questions
Do I need a truck? One is recommended for the last stretch of road, which has potholes.
When is the caddis hatch? Early June, soon after the ice goes.
Where next? Sullivan Lake and the Badger Lakes are close by, and Heffley Lake is on the way home.