In early May the ice is barely off the plateau south of Merritt, and on a calm morning at Corbett you can watch fish working the shallows before the sun has properly cleared the hills. They are Kamloops rainbows, deep in the body from a lake that is mostly weed and shelf, and the biggest of them come up onto the shoals to feed where you can see them.
Corbett is a small, spring-fed lodge lake beside the highway between Merritt and Aspen Grove, with ranch land all around it. No creek feeds it. More than half the lake is shoal, a wide weedy shelf around one deep basin, and that gives it three kinds of water: the shallow bays, the drop-offs at the edge of the shelf, and the deep middle.
The shallow bays are the reason to come. Chironomids hatch off them in spring and mayflies follow, and at first light the trout cruise them in plain sight. Start here early, drift in quietly, and cast only when a fish shows. The bite in a shallow bay can run hot for an hour and then go flat.
The drop-offs are the daytime water. Where the shelf breaks into the basin, fish hold along the edge and slide up onto it to feed, and a boat anchored on that line, with a chironomid or a leech hung just off the bottom, is the lake’s steadiest method once the sun is on the water.
The deep middle is what carries the fish through a long winter under ice, and it is where they drop when the shallows warm in July and August. Leave it until the edges stop producing.
You fish Corbett through the lodge at the south end, which has cabins and rents boats; the shoreline is private. For a second lake with shoals of its own, Courtney Lake is a few minutes south on the same highway, bigger, with two deep holes, and the lake most people drive past.
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.
Springs and seepage fill the lake, so there is no inflow to fish and no current to read: structure is everything. The broad shoals grow the weed, and the weed grows nearly everything the trout eat. The basin goes deep enough to hold fish through the cold months, and the lake is aerated to keep winter kill down. Ice usually covers it from November into May. The lodge protects the shoreline where the insects breed, so the edges stay weedy and alive.
Fish and forage
Chironomids are the main spring food, followed by Callibaetis mayflies. Dragonfly nymphs take fish into autumn, scuds and leeches are there all year, and grasshoppers fall onto the water along the shore late in the season. That makes a short box: chironomid pupae in black, brown and green; a leech, including a balanced leech; a Callibaetis nymph; a size 8 dragonfly nymph; and a hopper.
When to fish it
Corbett gives its best from ice-off in May through June, when the chironomids come off the shoals in sequence and the mayflies follow. On lakes around Merritt the hatches wait for the water to warm, so a cold spring pushes everything later.
In July and August fish the first and last hours of light, and the drop-offs in between. September brings the lake back: big fish return to the shallow bays at sunrise, dragonfly nymphs take fish early, and a hopper works along the shore. October fishes until the cold sets in, and by November the ice is coming.
How to fish it
A 6-weight with a floating line covers most of the lake, with a 10-foot fluorocarbon leader heavy enough to hold a big fish in the weed. BC allows one fly on the line, so fish one at a time and change it rather than adding a second.
In the bays at dawn, drift with a windsock and watch for cruising fish before you cast. Put the fly a few feet ahead of a fish, let it sink, and bring it back with a slow hand-twist. When the bay goes quiet, move to shallows nobody has touched yet rather than pounding the same water.
On the drop-offs, anchor on the edge of the shelf and hang a chironomid under an indicator, set so the fly rides just off the bottom. If nothing comes, change the depth before you change the fly, then go down a size or try another colour. When the chironomids stop working, put on a leech, under the indicator or retrieved slowly on a sinking line. If you carry a throat pump, check what the first fish has been eating and match it.
In the shallows a big rainbow often wins; expect to lose a few and fish heavier tippet than you think you need.
Access and safety
The lodge sits on Highway 5A about fifteen minutes from Merritt, and two and a half hours from Vancouver. The land around the lake is private and the lodge controls access to the water; public access to it has been disputed in court. Arrange your fishing with the lodge, and don’t cross fences or posted ground to reach the shore. Rental boats are at the lodge, along with cabins and meals if you stay.
Regulations
Corbett Lake sits in the Thompson-Nicola, Region 3 of the BC regulations. Check the regulations for any rule on this lake before you fish, along with in-season changes. Anglers 16 and older need a basic licence, and BC allows one line with one artificial fly. The lodge runs the lake as fly-only water and asks that every fish be released; those are its own terms, on top of whatever the province sets.