The province's 1971 reconnaissance survey put Jade Lake at 13.8 hectares, with a maximum depth of 11.9 m and a mean depth of 3.8 m across the basin. A Secchi reading of 11 m is exceptionally clear for a Kootenay stillwater, close to the bottom of its deepest point, which points to a low-nutrient lake with limited algae and a fish population that can see a leader a long way off.

For an angler judging whether Jade Lake is worth the drive, the release record is the fishing report. Provincial hatchery data logs 67 releases into Jade Lake between 1960 and 2026, totalling roughly 222,500 rainbow trout, the lake's only stocked species throughout that record. The modern program is a steady annual top-up: 1,000 Pennask-strain yearlings a spring, most recently released May 12, 2026 from the Beaver hatchery source. Strains have shifted over the decades (Fraser Valley, Tunkwa, Genier, Badger and Premier stock all appear earlier in the record), but the current program has held to Pennask yearlings for several consecutive years, so every fish in the lake now is part of the same annual cohort rather than a mixed-age holdover population.

Jade Lake fishes as a straightforward put-grow stillwater: the yearlings planted each spring are the fish you catch that season, growing on the lake's natural forage rather than arriving pre-grown. Work the shoals and any drop-off structure with a chironomid under an indicator early in the season (chironomid under indicator is the standard rig), and expect the very clear water (Secchi 11 m) to reward a long leader, light tippet and a careful approach over splashy casting. A Woolly Bugger or small leech pattern worked along deeper water is a reasonable second line once the shallows warm, following the general hot weather stillwater approach used on comparable Kootenay put-grow lakes.

No boat launch, parking area or trailhead has been confirmed for Jade Lake. It sits in the Columbia Valley backcountry between the Templeton River and Dunbar Creek drainages, a part of the region reached from backroads off Highway 95 near Brisco; confirm a legal approach and any private-land or seasonal restrictions locally before committing a day to it.