Milford Lake carries no listed exception in the current synopsis, so the regional default applies: trout/char 5 daily in combination, no more than 1 over 50 cm; kokanee 15 daily, no more than 5 over 30 cm. A freshwater licence is required for anglers 16 and over. Confirm current rules in the official synopsis before you fish.

Milford Lake covers 2.9 hectares, northwest of Shutty Bench and north of Kaslo, within the Kootenay Lake watershed. No depth or clarity survey is on record for it, honest for a lake this small. A BC Forest Service recreation site named for the lake sits at the water: established in 1980, it carries two rustic campsites with no reservations and no services beyond the cleared sites.

For an angler weighing whether the drive is worth it, the release record is the fishing report. Milford Lake has 33 recorded releases between 1934 and 2026. The two earliest, in 1934 and 1939, were eyed-egg transfers of Cottonwood- and Gerrard-strain rainbow trout, standard mid-century BC stocking practice. Gerrard-strain fish continued through the late 1980s, then the program shifted to Pennask-strain rainbow trout from 1991 onward, delivered most years as yearlings or fall fry in batches of 500 to 1,000 fish from the Beaver Lake hatchery station. Since 2017, a small kokanee fry release, roughly 200 fish a year sourced from Bridge, Sulphurous, Lussier River and Norbury Creek stock, has run alongside the rainbow program most seasons. The 2026 release was 200 Pennask-strain rainbow trout yearlings and 200 Norbury Creek-strain kokanee fry, both stocked June 15.

That history reads as a small, steady put-and-take fishery rather than a trophy destination. A 2.9-hectare lake draws modest annual plants, not the tens of thousands a big park lake carries. The rainbow trout are the program; the kokanee, present only since 2017 and never released above 200 fish a year, are a minor addition, not a fishery to plan a trip around.

Fish Milford Lake on small-lake stillwater lines: it is small enough that shoreline and shallow-water tactics cover most of the productive water. Work a chironomid under an indicator or a small nymph along any drop-off or weed edge, and expect rainbow trout sized to a lightly stocked small lake rather than trophy fish. Any kokanee taken here are incidental, a young forage-and-diversity addition rather than an established fishery of their own.

Milford Lake sits on the west side of Kootenay Lake, north of Kaslo and northwest of Shutty Bench. A BC Forest Service recreation site at the lake, established in 1980, has two rustic campsites and no services; reach it by the forest service road network on that side of the lake, and confirm current road status before heading in.