Pinantan Lake is ringed in cattails and bulrushes, and just past them the bottom goes. A narrow bench runs around most of the shore and then drops steeply into deep water, so you spend the day fishing a line between the reeds and the dark, and almost everything worth casting at lives along it.
It is an old fishery by local standards. A small community wraps around the shore now, cabins and a school and a general store, and the water stays quiet.
The shape is simple. There is one main basin with its ring of bench, a marshy south-east end of willow and water birch, and a second small lake, Little Pinantan, tucked off the north-east end. The outflow runs downhill to Paul Lake.
Start along the drop-off. Rainbows of about a pound are numerous and quick to take a fly, which makes this a lake for a relaxed day or for teaching someone, and a good mayfly hatch is the bonus for fly anglers. The lake was never treated for its redside shiners, so they are still here, and the insect life is thinner than at Paul Lake. That changes what you tie on: a leech, a Woolly Bugger or a small minnow pattern often does more than a careful bug imitation.
The marshy south-east end is the lake’s quiet corner. Work the weedy margins under the willows with a leech when the open bench goes slow.
Little Pinantan is the find. It is very small, built like the main lake, and if anything more crowded with rainbows of about the same size.
When the main lake’s trout get choosy, Paul Lake is a short drive back down the road, and Heffley Lake is over the hills to the north.
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
Position a boat or float tube over deep water and cast in toward the reeds. Let a leech or Woolly Bugger sink down the face of the drop-off on a slow sinking line, then retrieve it back out into deep water in short, uneven strips. If fish follow and turn away, slow down and go a size smaller. If that fails, swap to a minnow pattern and strip it faster along the edge, the way a shiner would move. When mayflies are up, change to a single dry and fish the edge of the bench. You may fish only one fly on the line; when it stops working, change it.
Access and safety
From Kamloops, take Highway 5 north and turn east onto the Paul Lake road, then carry on past Paul Lake to Pinantan, about half an hour in all. There’s a public picnic site on the north side, a grassy beach with a launch, and a resort at the west end with a launch, rowboat rentals, cabins and campsites in season. There is no public campground. Much of the shore is private lots, so don’t cross private land without permission. In summer the lake gets crowded with paddlers and swimmers.
Questions
Can I fish it without a boat? You can cast from the picnic site and beach, but the drop-off is the water you want, and a float tube or rowboat reaches it easily.
Is it worth a fly rod? Yes, for steady numbers of rainbows and a mayfly hatch. For bigger fish, look to Paul or Heffley.
Where next? Little Pinantan off the north-east end, then Paul Lake downstream.