The Field Journal
Rivers & Lakes · Stocked Stillwater

Centaur Lake

A brook trout stillwater in the St. Mary River watershed, stocked through the early 2000s. Little is known about its size, launch or tactics, so treat it as a regulation-and-access check before you commit a day.

Centaur Lake sits in the St. Mary River watershed of the East Kootenay, carrying a brook trout population built entirely by stocking. No size, launch or facility information has turned up for it yet, so for now the honest read is a lake worth a regulation and access check, not a confirmed destination.

The water

Surface area is not recorded. The working coordinate comes from the province's fish-presence point for the lake and still needs field confirmation.

The fishing

What is known comes entirely from the stocking record. Centaur received 12 recorded plants of brook trout between 1957 and 2001, the last a release of 1,000 fingerling brook trout of the Aylmer strain in 2001. Nothing has been stocked since, so any fish present today are either long-lived holdovers or a naturalized population sustaining itself in the lake. Until that is confirmed, plan on Centaur fishing like a small brook trout stillwater: chironomids and small nymphs worked over the shoals, with attractor dries a possibility if fish are rising.

waves
Stocked stillwater
St. Mary River watershed
egg
Stocking history
12 releases, 1957-2001
set_meal
Last release
2001, 1,000 fingerling Aylmer-strain brook trout

Stocking

The full year-by-year release history, colored by species, is below.

Stocking record

Centaur — 70,215 fish stocked, 1957–2001

Brook Trout. Source: Province of BC — FIDQ / FISS Fish Releases via the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC.

YearBrook Trout
20011,000
19992,000
19982,000
19675,000
19665,000
19655,000
19648,200
196310,380
19629,975
19619,660
19586,000
19576,000
gavel

Before you fish

Confirm the current BC freshwater fishing regulations (Region 4, Kootenay) before you go, including any bait, motor or ice-fishing restrictions specific to this lake. Official synopsis: gov.bc.ca fishing regulations.

Access and the rules

Confirm the road, boat launch, facilities and any seasonal or private-land restrictions for Centaur Lake locally before you go.