Little Slocan River widens twice on its way down from its headwaters, and Upper Little Slocan Lake is the upper of the two: a roughly 75-hectare stretch of slow water in the West Kootenay's Slocan Valley, west of Slocan and northwest of Nelson. It sits upstream of the river's other natural widening, Lower Little Slocan Lake, within the broader Slocan River watershed, and it has held rainbow trout since a stocking program put fish in through the late 20th century.
The water
Upper Little Slocan Lake is not a separate basin so much as a wide, slow reach of the Little Slocan River channel itself, an expansion of the river below its headwaters. A 1960 provincial lake survey measured it at roughly 75 hectares of surface area, with a maximum depth of 19.5 m and a mean of 10 m: enough depth for a real shoal-and-drop-off structure rather than a shallow bowl. Provincial aquatic-species records list 34 observations across five species here, including freshwater mussels of the genus Anodonta, a group sensitive to poor water quality. That contributes to a water-health signal that comes back excellent, with a health index of 78, one of the stronger readings among Slocan Valley stillwaters in the dataset.
The fishing
Rainbow trout are the only fish on record here, carried by the historical stocking program rather than a mixed native fishery. Fished as a rainbow stillwater, the standard small-lake toolkit is the starting point: chironomid under an indicator over the shoals in spring and early summer, then Woolly Bugger and other leech patterns, plus dragonfly and damselfly nymphs stripped along the drop-offs as the shallows warm through summer. No fly-specific local reports turned up for this lake, so treat that as a sensible starting box rather than a confirmed local pattern, and read the water on the day.
A lapsed stocking program
Access and the rules
Upper Little Slocan Lake sits in the Little Slocan River valley, upstream of Lower Little Slocan Lake, west of Slocan and northwest of Nelson. No launch, parking or trailhead details are confirmed here: treat the road in, any private-land sections and seasonal restrictions as something to check locally before committing a day to it.
Before you fish
Stocking
For an angler weighing whether this is worth the drive, the release record is most of the story: 18 stockings totalling roughly 53,282 rainbow trout, all between 1986 and 2001, all rainbow trout and no other species. The full year-by-year history is below.
Upper Little Slocan Lake — 53,282 fish stocked, 1986–2001
Rainbow Trout. Source: Province of BC — FIDQ / FISS Fish Releases via the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC.
| Year | Rainbow Trout |
|---|---|
| 2001 | 1,600 |
| 2000 | 3,027 |
| 1999 | 3,000 |
| 1995 | 10,000 |
| 1994 | 9,640 |
| 1993 | 305 |
| 1992 | 325 |
| 1991 | 5,385 |
| 1990 | 5,000 |
| 1989 | 5,000 |
| 1987 | 5,000 |
| 1986 | 5,000 |
Conditions
- Depth: max 19.5 m, mean 10 m (BC provincial lake survey, 1960-08-07). Deep enough for a defined shoal-and-drop-off structure rather than a shallow bowl.
- Stocking: rainbow trout only, 18 releases and roughly 53,282 fish recorded between 1986 and 2001, none since; treat it as a legacy put-grow fishery rather than an active annual program.
- Water-health signal: excellent (health index 78), among the higher readings in the Slocan Valley lake dataset; freshwater mussels (Anodonta sp.) recorded here are a marker of clean water.
