Bednorski Lake sits west of Wardner in the Bull River watershed, a compact 9.6-hectare basin that has carried brook trout since a fingerling-and-fry stocking program ran through the late 1980s and 1990s.
The water
The lake occupies a small footprint but a genuinely deep basin for its size: a Province of BC survey put the maximum depth at 13.1 m and the mean at 8.5 m, with a slightly alkaline surface pH of 8.5, typical of Rocky Mountain Trench lakes in this part of the East Kootenay. An older bathymetric map of the same basin lists it under the alternate name "Bednorski (Johnson) Lake." That depth-to-area ratio matters on the water: a 9.6 ha lake with a 13-metre hole holds a cool, oxygenated refuge through the warmest weeks of summer, rather than warming through to the bottom the way a shallow pond does.
Stocking
Bednorski was stocked almost every year from 1988 to 2002: eleven recorded releases of Aylmer-strain brook trout, origin wild, moving from fry to fingerling life stage as the program matured. Most years put in a modest 1,000 fish, with two much larger fingerling pulses closing out the program, 5,750 fish in 2000 and 8,560 in 2002, for roughly 23,300 brook trout released in total. No release has been recorded since 2002.
Bednorski Lake — 23,310 fish stocked, 1988–2002
Brook Trout. Source: Province of BC — FIDQ / FISS Fish Releases via the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC.
| Year | Brook Trout |
|---|---|
| 2002 | 8,560 |
| 2000 | 5,750 |
| 1996 | 1,000 |
| 1995 | 1,000 |
| 1994 | 1,000 |
| 1993 | 1,000 |
| 1992 | 1,000 |
| 1991 | 1,000 |
| 1990 | 1,000 |
| 1989 | 1,000 |
| 1988 | 1,000 |
That two-decade run and its abrupt stop is the honest fishing report here: whatever brook trout remain are either a residual population from those fingerling releases or a naturally reproducing holdover, not a fresh annual stock. Confirm current status locally before planning a trip around this water.
The fishing
With no confirmed local reports on file, fish it on the standard small-lake program for brook trout: work a chironomid under an indicator over the shallower shoal water early in the season, then follow the fish toward the drop-off into the 13-metre basin as the shallows warm through summer. A Woolly Bugger or small leech pattern fished slow along that edge covers the same water a trolled line would.
A lapsed stocking record
Conditions
- Depth: max 13.1 m, mean 8.5 m, surface area 9.6 ha (Province of BC lake survey, 1961).
- Water chemistry: surface pH 8.5, mildly alkaline, consistent with the limestone geology of the Rocky Mountain Trench.
Access & the rules
The lake sits west of Wardner in the East Kootenay, reached from the Bull River / Kootenay River road network off Highway 93/95; exact launch, parking and any seasonal or private-land restrictions are not yet confirmed and should be checked locally before a trip.
