The provincial dataset contains 441 matched historical fish records from 1901 to 2022. Reported taxa include Anadromous Bull Trout, Bridgelip Sucker, Brook Trout, Bull Trout, Burbot, Carp, Cutthroat Trout, Dolly Varden, Kokanee, Lake Chub, Lake Whitefish, Largemouth Bass, Largescale Sucker, Leopard Dace, Longnose Dace, Longnose Sucker, Mountain Whitefish, Northern Pikeminnow, Peamouth Chub, Prickly Sculpin, Pumpkinseed, Pygmy Whitefish, Rainbow Trout, Redside Shiner, Slimy Sculpin, Torrent Sculpin, Westslope (Yellowstone) Cutthroat Trout, White Sturgeon, Yellow Perch. These are source records, not fish counts, and do not establish current presence.

Contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – British Columbia.

Select the correct regulatory part of Kootenay Lake before applying a quota. A lake-wide open season does not mean every species may be kept, or that adjoining tributaries share the lake rules.

One of British Columbia's largest lakes and its most storied trophy water — a hundred kilometres of fjord between two mountain ranges, and the home of the largest rainbow trout on earth.

A 104 km fjord-like lake between the Selkirk and Purcell ranges. Home of the Gerrard rainbow — the largest strain on earth, to ~35 lb — plus bull trout and kokanee. A troll-and-guide fishery, not wade-and-cast. Nearest launch from Creston is Kuskanook Harbour.

Launch — Closest ramp from the Creston end.

Launch

Ferry — The longest free inland ferry ride in North America.

Shore — Shoulder-season shore access.

Kootenay Lake has three regulatory sections. The Main Body lies east of the signed line near Balfour Point and Procter Lighthouse. The Upper West Arm runs west from that line to McDonalds Landing (Six Mile). The Lower West Arm extends from McDonalds Landing to Corra Linn Dam. Use the official signs and map to identify your section.

In every part of Kootenay Lake, release burbot. Bass and yellow perch have unlimited daily quotas. The regional prohibitions on targeting northern pike, walleye and white sturgeon still apply.

In the Main Body, retain no kokanee. The daily rainbow trout quota is 10, of any size; the bull trout daily quota is 1. Keeping rainbow trout longer than 50 cm requires the Kootenay Lake Conservation Surcharge Stamp, and the annual quota for those larger rainbows is 20 per licence year.

In the Upper West Arm, release rainbow trout from 1 January through 31 May. The total daily trout-and-char limit is 2, including at most 1 bull trout. Kokanee must be released except from 1 through 3 April and 1 through 2 July, when the daily limit is 5.

In the Lower West Arm, the daily trout-and-char limit is 2, including at most 1 bull trout. The kokanee daily limit is 5 on Saturdays and Sundays; release kokanee on Mondays through Fridays. When harvest is allowed, the combined daily kokanee catch from both West Arm sections cannot exceed 5.

A person fishing from a boat on the Main Body of Kootenay Lake may use any number of rods. This exception is listed for the Main Body, not for the West Arm.

If keeping a rainbow trout over 50 cm from the Main Body of Kootenay Lake, immediately record the catch on your basic angling licence and carry the paper licence while fishing when that retention record is required. No Kootenay Lake rainbow trout stamp is needed if all rainbows over 50 cm are released.

The Region 4 spring closure applies to streams. The lake has no whole-lake seasonal fishing closure listed in the reviewed synopsis and in-season amendments. Species, areas, methods and retention limits still apply; check for new changes before fishing.

Normally use only one line when angling. A person alone in a boat on a lake may use two lines. Any water-specific exception must be checked separately. Unattended set lines are not permitted in Region 4.

A BC freshwater angling licence is generally required from age 16. Licence, accompaniment and catch-quota rules for younger anglers depend on residency. Check the provincial licensing page for exemptions, required identification and proof of licence. Additional stamps or a Classified Waters Licence may be needed.

An angling licence does not grant access across land. Obtain the appropriate permission before entering or crossing private, cultivated, posted or reserve land.

Fishing is prohibited within 23 metres downstream of the lower entrance to a fishway, canal, obstacle or leap, and within 100 metres of a government fish-counting, passage or rearing facility unless otherwise designated. Ecological reserves are closed to fishing.

Do not fish for white sturgeon in Region 4. Release any caught accidentally; a zero retention quota here is also a prohibition on targeting them.

Bait includes foodstuffs and natural substances used to attract fish, including roe, worms, and scents or flavourings containing natural substances or nutrients. Wood, cotton, wool, hair, fur and feathers are excluded from that definition. Freshwater invertebrates must not be used or possessed as bait at a lake; their use in streams depends on any local bait ban.

Chumming is prohibited. Do not use live fish, or fin fish or their parts other than roe, as bait in these Region 4 waters.

Each angling line may have only one hook, one artificial lure or one artificial fly attached. Do not fish with multiple artificial flies on a line, including a dropper fly.

Before transporting a boat or other watercraft, remove drain plugs and drain its compartments on dry land. Clean, drain and dry boats and equipment before moving between waters.

Photo: Explore Creston Valley (Creston Valley Tourism)

At roughly 104 kilometres end to end, Kootenay Lake is among the largest lakes in British Columbia — a long, cold, glacially-carved trench between two of the province's great mountain ranges. The Ktunaxa fished it long before it had its English name, taking sturgeon and kokanee from water that has always been generous to those who understood it. Today it remains, first and foremost, a boat fishery: the shorelines drop away fast, the fish range the open water column, and the classic approach is to troll, often from a guided charter, rather than to wade and cast.

Kootenay Lake's reputation rests on the Gerrard rainbow — a wild, piscivorous strain that grows to around 35 pounds, the largest rainbow trout anywhere on earth. They share the lake with big bull trout and with the kokanee that feed them both. The whole food web pivots on that little land-locked sockeye: when the kokanee are strong, the lake grows giants; when they falter, everything above them thins.

The lake you fish today is, in part, an engineered recovery. Through the mid-twentieth century the system was knocked off balance: the invasive shrimp Mysis arrived in 1949, and the Duncan (1967) and Libby (1973) dams stripped nutrients from the inflows, starving the plankton at the base of the food web. The kokanee crashed, and the trophy fishery with them.

The response was unusually direct. Since 1992 on the North Arm and 2004 on the South, the province has run a Nutrient Restoration Program, adding measured nitrogen and phosphorus to rebuild the Daphnia-to-kokanee food chain by hand. It has worked, slowly: by 2019 the spawner count had climbed to around 63,300 fish between Meadow Creek and the Lardeau — the best since 2015, though still short of historic highs — with bull trout laying 423 redds across eight tributaries. Recovery, not restoration to what once was, is the honest word.

That is why anglers are asked to be part of the machinery. Through the Angler Incentive Program, the province and its partners reward the harvest of rainbow and bull trout — turn in the heads and you're entered in a prize draw — to ease predation while the kokanee climb back. On most trophy water you release the big fish; here, taking a rainbow can be the conservation-minded choice. Read the current rules before you decide.

This is a downrigger lake. The productive game is to troll the cold water column with a sounder, running spoons, plugs and bucktails at the depth where the kokanee schools hold and the big rainbows and bull trout shadow them. Structure, drop-offs and bait balls are the map. Fly anglers are not shut out entirely — creek mouths and estuary flats in the cooler shoulder seasons can bring fish within reach of a cast — but for the marquee Gerrards, the boat and the rigger are the tools.

From the Creston end, Kuskanook Harbour is the closest ramp, with Boswell another option down the east shore. Further north the launches multiply — Sunshine Bay, Balfour, Queens Bay, Kootenay Bay, Kaslo, Lardeau — and the free Kootenay Bay–Balfour ferry, the longest inland ferry ride in North America, doubles as a way to read the water. Bank anglers can find fish at the creek mouths — Lockhart, Sanca, Coffee, Kaslo — where cold tributaries meet the lake.

Sources & further reading: Explore Creston Valley; BC government fisheries and nutrient-restoration data; Go Fish BC; guide/operator source checks; and the BC Freshwater Fishing Regulations, Region 4 (2025–2027). Recovery figures reflect 2019–2020 reporting — limits and closures change, so always check the current synopsis.