The Field Journal
Rivers & Lakes · Stocked Stillwater

Comfort Lake

A small stillwater at the head of Succour Creek, near the south end of Kinbasket Lake's Columbia Reach: 9.11 hectares, a shallow basin to 5.5 metres, and a rainbow trout program that ran for three decades before going quiet after 2003.

Comfort Lake is a small stillwater at the head of Succour Creek, near the south end of Kinbasket Lake's Columbia Reach, in the Columbia River watershed of the East Kootenay. It sits in a cluster of similarly named, similarly sized lakes in the same drainage, including Aid Lake and Help Lake, all stocked on the same rhythm through the same decades.

The water

The lake covers 9.11 hectares. A 1984 provincial reconnaissance survey found it shallow and productive: a maximum depth of 5.5 m, a mean depth of 3.3 m (a small basin, no deep refuge water), and a surface pH of 8.5. No Secchi-depth clarity reading was recorded. Comfort Lake carries no gazetted mollusc bioindicator survey, so there is no independent water-health signal beyond the stocking and depth data on file.

The fishing

No dedicated fishing report for Comfort Lake has surfaced. The honest read, based on its size and depth, is that it fishes like the small stillwaters typical of this drainage: work chironomid patterns under an indicator over the shoals in spring and early summer, then switch to Woolly Bugger and other leech or attractor patterns worked along the drop-offs as the shallows warm. With a mean depth of only 3.3 m, the whole lake is within casting and indicator range, so small-lake stillwater tactics apply across most of the basin rather than being confined to a narrow shoal band.

water
9.11 ha
surface area
set_meal
Rainbow trout
sole recorded species
waves
max 5.5 m, mean 3.3 m
1984 provincial lake survey
egg
1974-2003
stocking window, 28 recorded releases
egg

Three decades of Premier and Pennask rainbow

Comfort Lake was stocked 28 times between 1974 and 2003, a little over 131,000 rainbow trout in total. The early releases were heavy drops of fry and fingerlings, up to 11,000 fish in a season; by 1989 the program had settled into a steady 2,000 yearlings a year, mostly Pennask strain with some Premier-strain fish mixed in, until it stopped after the 2003 release. No stocking has been recorded here since, and it is unconfirmed whether any residual wild population remains.

Access and the rules

Comfort Lake has no confirmed road access, boat launch or facilities on file. Reach the general area via the Columbia Reach of Kinbasket Lake, east of its south end; treat the exact route and any parking as unconfirmed until checked locally.

gavel

Before you fish

Confirm the current BC freshwater fishing regulations (Region 4, Kootenay) before you go. Official synopsis: gov.bc.ca fishing regulations.

Stocking

Comfort Lake was managed as a put-and-take and put-grow rainbow trout fishery. The full year-by-year release history, 1974 to 2003, is below, from the Province of BC (FIDQ / FISS Fish Releases) via the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC.

Stocking record

Comfort Lake — 131,166 fish stocked, 1974–2003

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

YearRainbow Trout
20032,000
20022,000
20012,000
20002,000
19992,000
19982,000
19972,000
19962,000
19952,000
19942,000
19932,000
19922,000
19912,000
19902,000
19893,166
19884,000
19872,000
19865,000
198510,000
198410,000
198310,000
198210,000
198111,000
198010,000
197910,000
19785,000
19755,000
19748,000

Conditions

  • Depth: max 5.5 m, mean 3.3 m (BC lake survey, 1984-07-06, "A Reconnaissance Survey of Comfort Lake").
  • Water chemistry: surface pH 8.5 at the time of survey.
  • Stocking: dormant since 2003; no releases recorded in the two decades since.