Chain Lake is a small stillwater in the Bull River watershed of the East Kootenay, stocked for more than two decades with brook trout and now fishing as a shallow, put-grow lake. A near-namesake, Chain #2, sits a short distance to the south in the same drainage and carries its own, more recent brook trout program.
The water
The lake is compact, 12.4 hectares, and shallow: a 1969 provincial lake survey sounded it to a maximum depth of 4.6 m and a mean depth of 2.4 m, with 3.4 m of Secchi-disk clarity. A basin that shallow has no deep refuge to hide fish from an angler working the whole water column, and it also means the lake warms and cools faster through the season than a deep East Kootenay lake would.
The fishing
Chain Lake's fishing record is really its stocking record. Every release on file, Aylmer-strain brook trout from the provincial hatchery system, is charted below.
Stocking
Chain Lake is a put-and-take brook trout fishery: 11 recorded releases between 1982 and 2005 put 29,750 Aylmer-strain fish into the lake, as fry, fingerlings and unstaged plants, most recently 2,500 fingerlings on 2005-04-14. No release has been recorded since, so confirm locally whether the lake is still topped up or now fishes on a residual, self-sustaining population built from those decades of plants.
Chain Lake — 29,750 fish stocked, 1982–2005
Brook Trout. Source: Province of BC — FIDQ / FISS Fish Releases via the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC.
| Year | Brook Trout |
|---|---|
| 2005 | 2,500 |
| 2000 | 5,750 |
| 1998 | 5,000 |
| 1997 | 1,000 |
| 1989 | 2,000 |
| 1988 | 2,000 |
| 1987 | 2,000 |
| 1986 | 2,000 |
| 1985 | 2,500 |
| 1984 | 2,500 |
| 1982 | 2,500 |
A basin this shallow fishes top to bottom rather than to a deep drop-off: work a chironomid under an indicator over the flats, and switch to leech and attractor retrieves as the water warms through summer. Treat that as a general shallow-stillwater starting point rather than a confirmed local pattern until it is checked against reports from the water itself.
Before you fish
Conditions
- Depth: max 4.6 m, mean 2.4 m, Secchi 3.4 m (BC lake survey, 1969-07-23): a shallow, fully mixed basin with no deep-water refuge.
- Stocking: put-and-take program, Aylmer-strain brook trout, last recorded release 2005-04-14; confirm current status.
Access and the rules
No boat launch, trail or parking area is confirmed for Chain Lake. It sits in the Bull River watershed of the East Kootenay; confirm the access route, any private-land sections, and current Region 4 rules locally before you commit a day.
