Marquart is the lake most people drive past. It comes first on the gravel road into the grassland east of Merritt, small and deep, and the traffic carries on a couple of kilometres to its bigger neighbour, Lundbom. Stop anyway. Fresh rainbows go into Marquart every spring, and the deep water in the middle is said to hold bigger fish than anyone usually catches.
The lake has a day-use area and the first parking at its southwest end, the campground and boat launch at the northeast end, and a hill across from the campground with a few walk-in sites on it. On the water there are three places to fish: the shore by the day-use area, the band of shoreline water from about three to six metres deep, and the deep middle.
The shore at the southwest end is where you start if you have no boat. In late June and again in autumn, fish come into reach of a fly cast from the bank, and on a good day a float or a small lure from shore will find them too.
The shoreline band is the heart of the lake. Fish it from a canoe or a small boat, working the water where the bottom drops from the shallows toward the deep. Rainbows patrol that edge for chironomids, leeches and damselfly nymphs, and it is where most of Marquart’s fish come from. Start here, with a chironomid hung just off the bottom.
The deep middle is the question the lake still hasn’t answered. Bigger fish live there, by most accounts, but few anglers ever connect with them. A slow sinking line and a leech, or a spoon trolled deep, is the way to ask.
Camp on the hill across from the launch, where a trail leads up to the walk-in sites and the lake sits below you, and fish the shore at dusk. When you’ve worked out Marquart, Lundbom is five minutes up the same road, with its own grass shore and a reputation for big fish it once earned.
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.
Marquart sits up in open, dry hill country above Merritt. It is deep for its size, so the fish have cold water to retreat to in summer and room to winter under the ice. The productive water is the edge, where insect life on the shallower bottom sits close to the drop, and fish move between food and safety through the day. The water level has dropped at times, leaving old shoreline exposed, so the shore you walk may sit well back from where it once was, and the edge you are fishing for may be closer in than it looks.
Fish and forage
Rainbow trout are the main fish. Brook trout are reported too, and kokanee have been listed in the past, so the odd fish may not be a rainbow. The trout feed on chironomids and bloodworms, leeches and damselfly nymphs.
The box: chironomid pupae and a bloodworm in sizes 12 to 16; a leech; a damselfly nymph.
When to fish it
Spring and autumn are the seasons here. After ice-off in late April or May, the chironomid hatches bring fish onto the edge, and late June puts them in reach of the shore. Summer is slow in the heat; fish the first and last light or go deep. September and October bring the fish back up along the shoreline. Ice fishing is reported through the winter, but check the regulations before you try it.
How to fish it
From a boat, anchor in the shoreline band and fish a chironomid or bloodworm under an indicator, set so it hangs just off the bottom, or fish it without one and bring it back with a slow hand-twist. If nothing takes, change the depth first, then try a leech. BC allows one fly on the line, so change flies rather than adding a second.
When the edge goes quiet, drift over the deeper water with a leech on a sinking line, letting it down near bottom before a slow retrieve. From shore, cast a damselfly nymph or leech along the margin rather than straight out, and keep moving.
Access and safety
From Merritt, drive east on Highway 5A/97C, the Okanagan Connector, and watch for the recreation site sign for Marquart and Lundbom lakes, about ten minutes out of town. Turn onto Lundbom Lake Road; Marquart is the first lake on it. The campground is small, on the east side, with tables and fire pits at the sites and pit toilets; it is a fee site with few services. Pack out everything you bring in. The launch is soft gravel, suited to canoes and light aluminum boats. Horses are not allowed at the site.
Regulations
Marquart Lake is in the Thompson-Nicola, Region 3 of the BC regulations. Check the regulations for this lake before you fish or keep anything, and for in-season changes. Anglers 16 and older need a basic licence, and BC allows one line with one artificial fly.