The water
Twin Lakes sits in the upper Columbia River valley near Brisco, in the same small cluster of stillwaters as Big Fish Lake and Botts Lake. No area or depth survey is on record for the lake, so treat its size and structure as unconfirmed until a local report or field visit fills that in.
Stocking
The release record here is entirely historical. Provincial hatchery data logs 28 releases between 1929 and 1974, totalling roughly 343,000 fish, and then nothing since.
Twin Lakes — 343,056 fish stocked, 1929–1974
Rainbow Trout, Cutthroat Trout, Brook Trout. Source: Province of BC — FIDQ / FISS Fish Releases via the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC.
| Year | Rainbow Trout | Cutthroat Trout | Brook Trout |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1974 | 4,000 | · | · |
| 1973 | 5,000 | · | · |
| 1972 | 10,000 | · | · |
| 1971 | 4,000 | · | · |
| 1969 | · | · | 5,000 |
| 1958 | · | · | 24,000 |
| 1953 | · | 13,333 | · |
| 1952 | · | 13,193 | · |
| 1951 | · | 13,533 | · |
| 1950 | · | 16,666 | · |
| 1949 | · | 7,396 | · |
| 1948 | · | 5,520 | · |
| 1947 | · | 17,326 | · |
| 1946 | · | 15,936 | · |
| 1945 | · | 14,562 | · |
| 1944 | · | 9,478 | · |
| 1943 | · | 14,500 | · |
| 1942 | · | 13,333 | · |
| 1941 | · | 14,660 | · |
| 1940 | · | 13,300 | · |
| 1939 | · | 16,600 | · |
| 1938 | · | 15,000 | · |
| 1932 | · | 35,000 | · |
| 1931 | 5,000 | 12,500 | · |
| 1930 | 1,970 | 16,000 | · |
| 1929 | · | 6,250 | · |
The bulk of that record is westslope cutthroat trout: eyed eggs and fry from a string of different brood sources (Peavine Creek, Cranbrook Water Reservoir, Monroe, Kiakho and Palmer Bar Creek among them), with the Kiakho strain carrying most of the load through the 1940s. Brook trout fry went in twice, in 1958 and 1969. The final decade of stocking, 1971 to 1974, switched to rainbow trout fingerlings and yearlings from Tunkwa, Premier and Beaver strains, ending with 4,000 Premier-strain yearlings in 1974. That closing plant used the same Premier broodstock lineage that still seeds stillwaters across the region today, but the program at Twin Lakes itself was never renewed. Any cutthroat, rainbow or brook trout caught here now are legacy or naturally recruiting fish, not the product of a modern plant.
The fishing
With no stocking in more than fifty years and no local reports on record, Twin Lakes is a legacy water rather than a mapped destination. If it still holds a self-sustaining population, standard small-lake stillwater tactics are the sensible starting point: a chironomid under an indicator worked over any shoal, and a leech or attractor retrieve along whatever drop-off structure the lake holds.
A legacy water, not a put-and-take lake
Access and the rules
No confirmed boat launch, parking area or public access point has been found for Twin Lakes. Treat it as an access-check water: confirm a put-in and any private-land or seasonal restrictions locally before committing a day to it.
Before you fish
Conditions
- Stocking: 28 releases, 1929-1974, roughly 343,000 fish total (cutthroat, rainbow and brook trout). No release has been recorded since 1974, so the fishery, if it persists, runs on legacy or naturally recruiting fish rather than an active program.
- Survey: no depth, area or water-health survey is on record for Twin Lakes.
