The water
Williamson Lake is a small stillwater southeast of Revelstoke, sitting in the Upper Arrow Lake watershed in BC's West Kootenay, not far from sibling stillwaters Begbie Lake and Echo Lake. It is compact and shallow: about 4.45 hectares, running to a maximum depth of 5.5 m and averaging just 2.1 m, with neutral water (pH 7.2) per a 1970 provincial reconnaissance survey. A lake this shallow has no real thermocline or deep refuge, so the whole basin fishes roughly the same depth. Access, launch and parking have not been confirmed; treat it as a walk-in or rough-access lake until that is checked locally.
The fishing
Williamson is a put-and-take fishery in the truest sense. Every recorded fish in it is a stocked rainbow trout, and unlike a put-grow program that plants fry or yearlings to grow out over a season, Williamson gets fish that are already catchable: about 500 Fraser Valley-strain rainbow, averaging roughly 230-250 g, released each June. The record runs 18 straight years without a gap, 2009 through 2026, some 9,000 fish in total, making this one of the more consistently maintained small put-and-take programs in the area.
With a mean depth of only 2.1 m, small-lake stillwater tactics apply across the whole lake rather than just the shoals. A chironomid under an indicator fished at a shallow, consistent depth is the standard approach, and small nymphs or attractor wet flies fished on a slow retrieve will cover water efficiently on a lake this size. Given the annual June stocking date, the weeks right after the release are the surest window before the freshly planted fish disperse and the shallow water warms through summer.
A catchable-trout program, not a growing one
Stocking
Williamson Lake — 9,029 fish stocked, 2009–2026
Rainbow Trout. Source: Province of BC — FIDQ / FISS Fish Releases via the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC.
| Year | Rainbow Trout |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 500 |
| 2025 | 500 |
| 2024 | 500 |
| 2023 | 500 |
| 2022 | 500 |
| 2021 | 500 |
| 2020 | 500 |
| 2019 | 500 |
| 2018 | 500 |
| 2017 | 500 |
| 2016 | 500 |
| 2015 | 519 |
| 2014 | 500 |
| 2013 | 510 |
| 2012 | 500 |
| 2011 | 500 |
| 2010 | 500 |
| 2009 | 500 |
Conditions
- Species held: rainbow trout only, all of it stocked; no other species on record.
- Program: put-and-take angling, catchable-size Fraser Valley rainbow released every June since 2009, 18 consecutive years, roughly 9,000 fish total.
- Depth: max 5.5 m, mean 2.1 m, pH 7.2 (BC lake survey, 1970-07-01). Shallow enough that the whole lake fishes at one consistent depth rather than shoal-to-drop-off structure.
Access and the rules
Williamson Lake sits southeast of Revelstoke in the Upper Arrow Lake watershed. Road, launch and parking details have not been confirmed; the coordinate above marks the fish-presence point recorded in the provincial stocking data, not a verified access point. Confirm both the route in and the current regulations before you commit a day to it.
