Wilimena Lake

Stillwater
1
Species listed
Wilimena Lake is a small stillwater in the Elk River watershed in the East Kootenay, close to Line Creek. It carries a long but intermittent provincial stocking record, five documented releases of westslope cutthroat trout between 1985 and 2022, all Connor strain, which reads as a put-grow lake that gets topped up every decade or so rather than every spring.

Species

Reported species; current abundance is unknown.
No live gauge
No gauge readings are available for this water.
Season
Driving directions

Region 4 Regulations — guide reviewed 2026-07-08

No lake-specific closure or reduced limit is documented for Wilimena Lake. Confirm the current Region 4 (Kootenay) regulations for bait, motor and ice-fishing limits before you fish it.

The water

The lake's watershed code places it in the same drainage family as Line Creek, a tributary system that in turn feeds the Elk River. Little else about Wilimena is confirmed: surface area, depth, shoreline and any launch or trail are not documented, and the mapped coordinate is the provincial fish-presence point rather than a surveyed centroid, so treat the pin as approximate until a local report narrows it down.

The fishing

With no current report to draw on, fish Wilimena on general stillwater lines until local information says otherwise: chironomids under an indicator over the shoals, and leech patterns or attractor retrieves along any drop-off. The stocking mix, all westslope cutthroat trout of Connor strain, is typical of a Kootenay-Columbia put-grow lake, but with releases this spread out, current fish size, density, and whether a self-sustaining population persists between plantings are all open questions.

An intermittent stocking record

Wilimena has been stocked five times since 1985, all with Connor-strain westslope cutthroat trout: 2,000 fry or fingerlings in each of 1985, 1989 and 1990, 1,000 more in 1992, then a 27-year gap before 350 yearlings went in on 2022-07-13. That gap means the lake's current fish population, whether it is mostly the 2022 cohort or a longer-lived residual group, is unconfirmed until a current report says otherwise.

Access and the rules

Confirm access, launch options and parking for Wilimena Lake locally before you go. No lake-specific closure or reduced limit applies, so the general Region 4 (Kootenay) rules govern.

Before you fish

Confirm the current Region 4 (Kootenay) freshwater fishing regulations, including bait, motor and ice-fishing limits, before fishing Wilimena Lake. Official synopsis: gov.bc.ca fishing regulations.

Questions

Page reviewed 2026-07-08