Fisher Maiden Lake sits in the East Kootenay's St. Mary River watershed and carried a provincial rainbow trout stocking program for more than thirty years, running annually from 1983 through 2014. No plant has been recorded since, so the release record below is both the fishing report and the honest caveat: this reads today as a lapsed put-grow lake, not an active one.
The water
Fisher Maiden Lake's surface area and depth are not recorded in the BC lake survey data used to build this profile; only its coordinates and stocking history are confirmed. Its waterbody identifier places it within the St. Mary River watershed group, which drains into the St. Mary River and on to the Kootenay River, though the specific inflow or outflow creek connecting Fisher Maiden Lake to that system has not been confirmed.
Stocking
For a lake with no dedicated local fishing report, the stocking record is the fishing report. Fisher Maiden Lake had 33 recorded releases between 1983 and 2014, totalling roughly 34,250 rainbow trout. The early program (1983-2005) ran small, steady yearling and fingerling plants of about 1,000-2,000 fish a year, cycling through Premier, Pennask, Beaver, Tunkwa, Genier and Badger hatchery strains. From 2006 the program shifted to Fraser Valley-strain spring-catchable rainbow, stocked at a larger average size (roughly 220-330 g) in smaller numbers of 250-500 fish a year. The last recorded release, in May 2014, put 250 Fraser Valley spring-catchable rainbow into the lake. Nothing has been logged since.
Fisher Maiden — 34,250 fish stocked, 1983–2014
Rainbow Trout. Source: Province of BC — FIDQ / FISS Fish Releases via the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC.
| Year | Rainbow Trout |
|---|---|
| 2014 | 250 |
| 2013 | 500 |
| 2012 | 500 |
| 2011 | 500 |
| 2010 | 500 |
| 2009 | 250 |
| 2008 | 250 |
| 2007 | 250 |
| 2006 | 1,250 |
| 2005 | 1,000 |
| 2004 | 1,000 |
| 2003 | 1,000 |
| 2002 | 1,000 |
| 2001 | 1,000 |
| 2000 | 1,000 |
| 1999 | 1,000 |
| 1998 | 1,000 |
| 1997 | 1,000 |
| 1996 | 1,000 |
| 1995 | 1,000 |
| 1994 | 1,000 |
| 1993 | 1,000 |
| 1992 | 1,000 |
| 1991 | 1,000 |
| 1990 | 1,000 |
| 1989 | 2,000 |
| 1988 | 2,000 |
| 1987 | 2,000 |
| 1986 | 2,000 |
| 1985 | 2,000 |
| 1984 | 2,000 |
| 1983 | 2,000 |
That gap, more than a decade with no recorded plant, is the single most important fact about Fisher Maiden Lake today. Whether the program has simply gone unrecorded, been quietly discontinued, or the lake now runs on a naturally recruiting population of the 2014 cohort's descendants is not confirmed; treat any fish caught here as holdovers rather than a fresh stock.
The fishing
With no dedicated local report and no stocking on record since 2014, fish Fisher Maiden Lake as a standard small-lake stillwater until a current report narrows it further: a chironomid pattern fished under an indicator over the shoals in spring and early summer, switching to a Woolly Bugger or balanced leech worked along any drop-off as the shallows warm through summer. Given the lapsed program, expect a lower-density, possibly self-sustaining rainbow population rather than the predictable fresh-plant fishing a currently stocked lake would offer.
What still needs confirming
Access and the rules
No confirmed public launch, parking area or access road has turned up for Fisher Maiden Lake. It sits within the St. Mary River watershed in the East Kootenay; confirm the route and any private-land or seasonal restrictions locally before making the drive.
Before you fish
Conditions
- Size and depth: not recorded; no BC lake survey is on file for Fisher Maiden Lake.
- Stocking: rainbow trout, 33 releases from 1983 to 2014, then none recorded; last release 250 Fraser Valley-strain spring-catchable rainbow, May 2014.
