Watch the swallows. On a June morning on Hatheume, high on the Pennask plateau, they work low over one patch of water and ignore the rest, and under them the chironomids are coming off. That is where you drop anchor.
Hatheume has been a fly fisher’s lake for a long time. A resort has stood on its shore since 1959, the rainbows grow to a size worth the drive, and the lake sits high enough that it stays cool and fishable into August, when the valley lakes below have gone warm and slow.
The lake lies in the forest on top of the plateau, and it comes in four parts worth knowing: the resort shore on the northeast side, the weedy southwest corner by the recreation site, the northwest corner, and the open middle.
The resort shore is the easy start. The cabins and the dock are on the northeast side, and big fish have come from right off the dock. If you have never seen the lake, ask at the store what is hatching and where, then row out from there.
The southwest corner is the best water to try first from your own boat. It is the weediest part of the lake, close to the forest campsite and its cartop launch, and weed is where the lake’s insects live.
The northwest corner is the other good place to start, along the north shore from the resort, and the one to row to on a busy weekend, when the campsite by the southwest corner is full.
The middle is the reward for the patient. It is open water away from the weed, and it is a favoured spot for the trophy rainbows. Leave it until the corners have taught you the depth the fish are holding at.
Then stay for the evenings between mid-June and early July. That is when the sedges hatch, and a lake fished all spring under an indicator turns back into the dry-fly water it was known for.
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.
When to fish it
The rules list no closure for Hatheume Lake; check in-season changes before you go. Ice fishing is banned here, so the year runs from ice-out to freeze-up.
The resort opens in mid-May and runs to mid-October. Insects hatch from late May to September. The spring chironomids start the season and are at their best through June and July, overlapping the sedge evenings. In August, fish early and late in the day. In September and the first half of October, as the lake cools, leeches and shrimp come into their own. The forest campsite is busy on weekends from ice-out into early September.
How to fish it
Anchor on the shoal edge in the southwest or northwest corner, front and back, and hang one chironomid pupa under an indicator about a foot off the bottom. Early in the season fish black with a red rib, or a chromie; from midsummer go to olive with a copper rib. Sizes run from a 10 down to an 18, so carry the range.
Depth is the whole game. Fish turn up anywhere from six to eighteen feet down, and once you find the depth they are holding at, it tends to hold across the lake. If the indicator sits still for twenty minutes, move the fly up or down a foot before you change it. If that fails, cut it off and tie on a leech in black, brown or maroon, and crawl it back on a slow intermediate line along the drop. Early and late in the year, an olive or grey shrimp, stripped in short twitches over the weed, is the change to make.
During the sedge hatch, keep a single dry sedge ready, cast it to rises over the shoals in the evening and skate it a few inches before letting it sit. One fly on the line at a time.
A 5 weight with a floating line and an intermediate covers it.
Access and safety
From Merritt, take Highway 5A south to Highway 97C just before Aspen Grove, then go east on 97C to the Sunset interchange. From Kelowna or Peachland, come west on 97C to the same exit. From there, follow the Sunset and Bear forest roads north for about 18 km and turn left at the Pinnacle and Hatheume turnoff; the lake is roughly 21 km from the highway on gravel.
The resort, on the northeast shore, rents boats with oars, an electric motor, life jackets and an anchor, and sells tackle. The Hatheume Lake South recreation site has a cartop launch. Bring the safety gear your boat requires and your operator card if you run a motor, because officers check both. Wind comes up often on the plateau, so cross the open middle early or late, when it is usually calmer.