Imagery: Esri, Vantor, Earthstar Geographics

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Silver Spring Lake

Stillwater

Species listed

14.9 m

Reported max depth

5.2 m

Reported mean depth

Silver Spring Lake is a small stillwater in the Elk Valley of the East Kootenay, sitting just north of where the Elk River and Wigwam River meet. At 7.69 hectares it barely registers on a map, but a 1961 provincial survey found real depth underneath: a basin running to 14.9 m at its deepest with a 5.2 m mean, and water clear enough to read a Secchi disk to 11.1 m. It has carried a put-grow rainbow trout program for a century, most recently as a steady annual release of yearling Blackwater-strain fish.

Species

Reported species; current abundance is unknown.

Rainbow Trout

Westslope Cutthroat Trout

Kokanee

No live gauge

No gauge readings are available for this water.

Season

Driving directions

Region 4 Regulations — guide reviewed 2026-07-08

Not listed by name in the Region 4 synopsis, so the general provincial daily-catch limits and Region 4 (Kootenay) rules apply to its rainbow trout, cutthroat trout and kokanee. Confirm the current synopsis before you fish.

The water

The lake's small footprint hides a defined basin: a maximum depth of 14.9 m against a 5.2 m mean signals real structure rather than a shallow bowl, so expect the fish to relate to a shoal-and-drop-off pattern rather than spreading evenly across the surface. The same 1961 survey recorded strong water clarity (Secchi 11.1 m), typical of a spring-fed lake this size.

The fishing

Silver Spring doesn't carry angler reports the way the region's bigger stillwaters do, so the honest starting point is its structure and stocking record: a small, deep-for-its-size put-grow rainbow trout fishery, holding fish sized to a modest yearling-release program a season or two on. That basin shape favours standard small-lake stillwater tactics: chironomid patterns fished under an indicator over the drop-off early in the season, with leech and balanced leech patterns worth working through the same water as the shallows warm.

A rainbow lake, not really a cutthroat or kokanee one

Silver Spring's official fish record lists westslope cutthroat trout and kokanee alongside rainbow trout, but neither is part of the working fishery today: 1,000 wild Connor-strain cutthroat fall fry went in twice, in 2002 and 2004, and 1,500 wild Meadow Creek kokanee fry went in once, back in 1952. Neither has been repeated since. Every release since 2006 has been rainbow trout, so plan around a single-species put-grow lake.

Access and the rules

Silver Spring sits in the Elk Valley of the East Kootenay, just north of the Elk River and Wigwam River confluence. No specific access point, boat launch or trail is confirmed here, so check current road conditions and any private-land crossings in the area before heading in.

Before you fish

Silver Spring Lake is not listed by name in the Region 4 synopsis, so the general provincial daily-catch limits and Region 4 (Kootenay) rules apply to its rainbow trout, cutthroat trout and kokanee. Confirm the current synopsis before you fish.

Stocking

Silver Spring carries one of the longer stocking records in the region: 74 recorded releases and roughly 370,500 fish since 1920. Through the mid-20th century it rotated through a long list of BC hatchery rainbow strains as fry and fingerlings (Gerrard Creek, Pennask, Cottonwood, Premier, Beaver, Pinantan, Fraser Valley, Tunkwa, Genier and Badger among them). Since 2006 the program has settled into a steady, modest pattern: about 500 yearling rainbow trout every spring, Gerrard-strain through 2011 and Blackwater River strain since 2012 (with one Fraser Valley fingerling release in 2016), most recently 500 fish on 2026-05-05. The full year-by-year release history is below.

Conditions

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Depth: max 14.9 m, mean 5.2 m, Secchi 11.1 m (BC provincial lake survey, 1961-08-19). Deep for a 7.69 ha lake, with enough basin to support a real shoal-and-drop-off pattern.

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Stocking: put-grow rainbow trout, roughly 500 Blackwater-strain yearlings released every spring since 2012 (Gerrard-strain from 2006-2011); 74 releases and about 370,500 fish total since 1920. Westslope cutthroat trout (2002, 2004) and kokanee (1952) appear only as isolated historical releases.