In June the reeds at both ends of Lac Le Jeune fill with damselfly nymphs climbing out of the water to hatch, and the rainbows follow them into the shallows. The lake sits high on the plateau south-west of Kamloops, cool enough that the fishing holds up through a summer that leaves the valley lakes warm and slow.
Most people know it as a park lake, a beach and a campground with boats trolling up and down the middle. Look at it as a fly fisher and it comes apart into three kinds of water. The east and west ends are shallow and reedy. The north and south shores are forested, with shoals along them that fall away into a deep middle. And in front of the day-use area a long wharf reaches out over water a bank angler would otherwise never touch.
Start at the reedy ends. That is where the insects are: damselflies and dragonflies through early summer, and in late June and early July a sedge hatch that can make a still evening the best hour of your visit. Fish the ends early and late, when the light is off the water and the bigger fish leave the drop-offs to cruise the weed.
The shoals along the forested shores are the other half of the lake. Chironomids hatch over the drop-offs from soon after the ice goes, and this is where you hang a pupa and wait. In September, as the evenings cool, water boatmen take over and the fish come back up onto the shallows.
The wharf is the find for anyone without a boat. It is wheelchair accessible and puts you over fishable water a short walk from the car. In spring it is one of the easier places around Kamloops to put a child onto a trout.
When the park feels busy, smaller lakes wait a few kilometres off: Ross Moore over the hill to the east, at the end of a road rougher than it looks, and Lodgepole up a forest road to the north-west, where beetle-killed pine has opened up the campsites to the sky.
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.
How to fish it
A boat or float tube opens the lake up; a floating and an intermediate line cover most of it. BC allows one fly on the line, so fish one pattern at a time. Over the drop-offs, hang a chironomid pupa under an indicator, set just off the bottom. If nothing comes in twenty minutes, change depth before you change the fly, then go a size smaller or a shade darker.
When fish are working the reeds, anchor off the edge and switch to a damselfly or dragonfly nymph on the intermediate line, cast into the reed edge and brought out in slow, short pulls. On sedge evenings, skate a dry sedge along the weed line. If fish boil at it and refuse, change to a Halfback Nymph or a Doc Spratley pulled just under the film. In autumn a water boatman stripped in short bursts over the shoal is the fly to start with. Between spots, trolling a small leech along the drop-off finds where the fish are holding.
Access and safety
From Kamloops, take the Coquihalla (Highway 5) south to the Lac Le Jeune exit and follow the signs, about 37 km in all; a paved road also runs out from Kamloops. The provincial park has a campground that takes reservations through the summer, a concrete boat launch and the wharf. A resort on the lake has cabins and boat rentals. A trail circles the lake through forest and wet meadow. Moose and bear use it, and so do lynx, so keep dogs leashed. The beach has no lifeguard. In winter there is no vehicle access to the park, and ice on any of these lakes needs testing before you trust it.