Confirm the current BC freshwater fishing regulations (Region 4, Kootenay), including any bait, motor or ice-fishing limits for this lake, before you fish.

Island Lake sits in the Elk River drainage just north of Lizard Creek; its exact size, depth and shoreline character have not turned up in any survey or report. The two provincial datasets that reference the lake carry slightly different coordinates, so treat the plotted point as approximate until confirmed on the ground.

The stocking record tells two separate stories, seventy years apart. Between 1923 and 1954, the province planted wild-origin rainbow trout fry five times, 30,725 fish in total, drawn from four different hatchery source strains (Gerrard Creek, Pennask, Pinantan and Loon Creek). That program ended in 1954 and did not resume. Then, starting in 1988, the lake was stocked six more times with wild-origin, Connor-strain westslope cutthroat trout fall fry, 17,000 fish in total, the last release 2,000 fish on 1996-09-30. The Connor strain is the genetically pure westslope cutthroat broodstock line used widely across East Kootenay stillwaters. Nothing has been logged since 1996, so whatever is swimming in Island Lake today is a holdover or naturally reproducing fish, not a recent plant.

Fish it on standard small-lake lines until a local report says otherwise: chironomids under an indicator over any shoal structure, balanced leech or Woolly Bugger retrieves along the drop-offs, and a searching dry like an Adams on a calm evening.

The release record below is the whole fishing report for Island Lake: a rainbow trout fry program that ran mid-century, then a Connor-strain cutthroat program that closed out the 1990s, and nothing since.

No road, launch, trailhead or parking information has turned up for Island Lake. Confirm access locally, and check the current rainbow trout and westslope cutthroat limits and any bait, motor or ice-fishing restrictions for this water before you fish.