The water
Begbie Lake sits just north of Mount Begbie and southwest of Revelstoke, in the Upper Arrow Lake watershed in BC's West Kootenay. It is a small stillwater, about 6.7 hectares, running to a maximum depth of 6.4 m and averaging 3.2 m, with slightly acidic water (pH 6.9), per a 1970 provincial reconnaissance survey. 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
Begbie Lake is a put-and-take fishery, not a self-sustaining one. Its entire recorded catch comes from stocked rainbow trout, with 49 releases logged between 1935 and 2025, most recently 1,000 Pennask-strain fry planted on 2025-09-17. That long record, roughly 146,750 rainbow trout stocked across nine decades, says the lake has held a fishable population of put-and-take rainbow for a very long time, even without an angler report on file to confirm current condition.
Fish it with standard small-lake stillwater tactics until a local report says otherwise: a chironomid under an indicator worked over the shoals in spring and early summer (the shallow mean depth of 3.2 m keeps most of the lake in range), leech and attractor patterns like a Woolly Bugger fished along any drop-offs as the water warms, and a switch to dry-fly and emerger patterns if you find fish rising in the evening.
Read the stocking record as the fishing report
Stocking
Begbie Lake — 146,754 fish stocked, 1935–2025
Rainbow Trout. Source: Province of BC — FIDQ / FISS Fish Releases via the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC.
| Year | Rainbow Trout |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 1,000 |
| 2023 | 1,000 |
| 2021 | 1,000 |
| 2019 | 1,000 |
| 2017 | 1,000 |
| 2016 | 500 |
| 2013 | 1,000 |
| 2011 | 1,000 |
| 2009 | 1,500 |
| 2007 | 1,000 |
| 2005 | 1,000 |
| 2003 | 1,000 |
| 2001 | 1,000 |
| 1999 | 1,000 |
| 1997 | 1,000 |
| 1995 | 1,000 |
| 1993 | 1,000 |
| 1991 | 3,000 |
| 1990 | 1,000 |
| 1989 | 3,000 |
| 1988 | 3,000 |
| 1987 | 3,000 |
| 1986 | 3,000 |
| 1985 | 3,000 |
| 1984 | 3,000 |
| 1983 | 3,000 |
| 1982 | 3,000 |
| 1981 | 3,000 |
| 1980 | 3,000 |
| 1979 | 3,000 |
| 1978 | 3,000 |
| 1977 | 3,000 |
| 1976 | 3,000 |
| 1975 | 3,000 |
| 1974 | 3,000 |
| 1973 | 5,000 |
| 1972 | 2,500 |
| 1971 | 5,000 |
| 1970 | 4,000 |
| 1968 | 4,000 |
| 1966 | 4,000 |
| 1965 | 3,000 |
| 1955 | 6,000 |
| 1952 | 7,000 |
| 1951 | 6,054 |
| 1950 | 8,200 |
| 1949 | 5,000 |
| 1948 | 15,000 |
| 1935 | 3,000 |
Conditions
- Species held: rainbow trout only, all of it stocked; no other species on record.
- Program: put-and-take angling, not a broodstock or kokanee-forage lake.
- Depth: max 6.4 m, mean 3.2 m, pH 6.9 (BC lake survey, 1970-07-03).
Access and the rules
Access, launch and parking details for Begbie Lake have not been confirmed and still need a field or source check; 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.
