Topaz Lake is a small, shallow stillwater in the Columbia Valley backcountry near Brisco, sitting between the Templeton River and Dunbar Creek. It carries the official waterbody identifier 00100COLR, placing it in the Columbia River watershed group alongside its neighbours Jade Lake and Cub Lake. The lake has held both rainbow trout and brook trout over its stocking history, though no release has gone in since 2014.
The water
A 1971 provincial reconnaissance survey ("A Reconnaissance Survey of Topaz Lake") measured the lake at 9.07 hectares, with a maximum depth of just 5.5 m and a mean depth of 1.6 m, a Secchi reading of 4 m and a slightly alkaline surface pH of 8.2. That is a genuinely shallow lake for its footprint: with the average depth barely more than waist-deep, there is no cold, deep refuge for fish once the shallows warm through summer, and no long troll out to a distant drop-off. The whole basin fishes like the shoal zone of a bigger lake.
Stocking
For an angler weighing the drive, the release record is the fishing report, and on Topaz it tells the story of a program that has quietly stopped. Provincial hatchery data logs 43 releases into the lake between 1960 and 2014, totalling roughly 143,755 fish: 122,055 rainbow trout and 21,700 brook trout.
Topaz Lake — 143,755 fish stocked, 1960–2014
Rainbow Trout, Brook Trout. Source: Province of BC — FIDQ / FISS Fish Releases via the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC.
| Year | Rainbow Trout | Brook Trout |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 250 | · |
| 2013 | 500 | · |
| 2012 | 500 | · |
| 2011 | 500 | · |
| 2010 | 500 | · |
| 2009 | 1,000 | · |
| 2008 | 500 | · |
| 2007 | 500 | · |
| 2006 | 500 | · |
| 2005 | 250 | · |
| 2004 | 3,000 | · |
| 2003 | 3,000 | · |
| 2002 | 3,000 | · |
| 2001 | 3,000 | · |
| 2000 | 3,000 | · |
| 1999 | 3,000 | · |
| 1990 | 2,000 | · |
| 1989 | 2,000 | · |
| 1988 | 2,000 | · |
| 1987 | 1,500 | · |
| 1986 | 4,000 | · |
| 1985 | 8,000 | · |
| 1984 | 9,000 | · |
| 1983 | 4,000 | · |
| 1982 | 4,000 | · |
| 1981 | 4,000 | · |
| 1980 | 4,000 | · |
| 1979 | 4,000 | · |
| 1978 | 4,000 | · |
| 1977 | 5,000 | · |
| 1976 | 5,000 | · |
| 1975 | 5,000 | · |
| 1974 | 5,000 | · |
| 1973 | 5,000 | · |
| 1972 | 5,000 | · |
| 1969 | 5,000 | · |
| 1966 | · | 10,000 |
| 1965 | · | 11,700 |
| 1962 | 5,600 | · |
| 1961 | 4,000 | · |
| 1960 | 1,955 | · |
The early decades, 1960 into the 1990s, put in fry and fingerling rainbow trout most years, largely Beaver- and Premier-strain fish, with two fingerling plants of brook trout in 1965 and 1966 the only record of that species. From 1999 the program shifted to fall-fry Tunkwa and Pennask rainbow, then in 2005 moved to a true put-and-take model: catchable-size Fraser Valley rainbow stocked at 240-370 g, roughly legal-size fish ready to be caught the same season. That catchable program ran every year from 2005 through 2014, the last release 250 spring-catchable Fraser Valley rainbow on May 26, 2014. Nothing has gone in since, over a decade now, so any fish left in the lake would be long-lived holdovers rather than fresh stockers.
The fishing
No local fishing report, hatch record or guide reference has turned up for Topaz Lake, so treat it as a small-lake stillwater read from the data rather than a written-up destination: with the whole lake shallow and clear, a chironomid fished under an indicator, or a slow-retrieved Woolly Bugger over whatever weed or shoreline structure the lake holds, is the standard starting approach. A stealthy presentation matters more than distance here, given a 4 m Secchi reading in water that is rarely more than a couple of metres deep.
What still needs confirming
Access and the rules
No confirmed public launch, parking area or access road has turned up for Topaz Lake itself. It sits in the same general Columbia Valley backcountry, near Brisco off Highway 95, as Jade Lake and Cub Lake; confirm a legal approach and any private-land or seasonal restrictions locally before making the drive.
Before you fish
Conditions
- Depth: max 5.5 m, mean 1.6 m, Secchi 4 m (1971 provincial survey). A shallow lake with no deep refuge once the shallows warm.
- Stocking: put-and-take rainbow and brook trout, 43 releases from 1960 to 2014; no release recorded since.
