Paska holds its ice longer than the lakes down around Logan Lake, often into the middle of May, so it opens when the lower water is already busy. The drive in is a long potholed road through forest, and the lake only shows itself at the very end.
It is a single high basin on the plateau east of Logan Lake, ringed with forest and draining out to Greenstone Creek, with one large forestry campground and launch on its west bank. There are two things to find up here: the lake itself, and the string of small high lakes a short drive north of it.
The lake is a food factory. Scuds live in it in numbers, along with chironomids, sedges, mayfly nymphs and dragonfly nymphs, and the rainbows grow on all of it. Most of the boats you see are trolling, in spring and again in autumn, but this is a very good fly lake for anyone who will slow down and fish it. Start from the campground: launch there, work the shoreline either way, and let the trolling boats show you where the fish are moving.
Paska’s shoals you have to find for yourself, and that is the reward for the angler with a sounder and some patience. Find where the shallow margin drops away, anchor on it, and you have a stillwater few people fish with a fly.
The other find is just up the road. A few minutes north is a slightly bigger lake with a small campsite and a cartop launch, Face Lake, where trolling is the usual method. Beyond it are smaller lakes still: one higher up, where the fish are small but plentiful, and one that winterkills some years and can grow big fish in the seasons between.
Paska is the kind of lake you camp on for a few days, fishing mornings and evenings and driving the forest roads north in between to see which of its neighbours is hatching.
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
Bring a 5-weight, a floating line with a long leader and an indicator, and a sinking line for when the fish go deep. In late May and June, start with a chironomid in size 12 to 16 hung a foot or two off the bottom along the shoal edge. If it doesn’t work, change depth before you change flies, then try a scud fished slow near the weed with a hand-twist retrieve. If sedges start coming off on a summer evening, switch to a sedge dry and fish it with a short strip across the surface. In autumn, a leech or dragonfly nymph on the sinking line, trolled or cast and stripped along the drop-off, covers more water. One fly at a time.
Access and safety
From the centre of Logan Lake, head east on Meadow Creek Road and turn left onto Paska Lake Road; the campground is roughly 12 to 14 km up it. From Kamloops, take the Coquihalla to exit 336 and come west on the Lac le Jeune road to the same turnoff. The road is rough and potholed but passable in a two-wheel-drive car in summer; conditions change with the season.
Paska Lake Recreation Site, on the west bank, is a large, semi-open forestry campground that takes motorhomes. It has a boat launch, picnic tables and pit toilets. It charges a fee, sites are first come, first served, and stays are limited to 14 days. Dogs must be on a leash. There are no stores, so bring what you need from Logan Lake. Trails run east up Chuwhels Mountain and north toward Greenstone Mountain, shared with ATVs, dirt bikes and horses.