Kaslo River is a river flowing into Kootenay River. Recorded fish: Westslope cutthroat, bull trout, rainbow, cutthroat, dolly varden, kokanee.
The water
It flows into Kootenay River within the Kootenay Lake watershed (Kootenay Lake → Kootenay River). It runs stream order 6 (well down the network, toward river scale; the scale runs from 1 for a headwater trickle to 6+ for a river) and roughly 33 km. Westslope Cutthroat Trout, Bull Trout, Rainbow Trout, cutthroat, dolly varden, Kokanee, recorded here in provincial fish-inventory data (199 records). Named tributaries in the index: Keen Creek, Twelve Mile Creek, Stenson Creek, Kemp Creek, Lyle Creek, Robb Creek, Holmes Creek, Ten Mile Creek, Jardine Creek, Emerald Creek, Watson Creek.
Stocking
For an angler judging whether the fishing is worth the drive, the stocking record is the fishing report. Kaslo River is a put-and-take angling fishery, stocked with catchable game fish: 25 recorded releases totalling 598,315 fish (Bull Trout, Westslope (Yellowstone) Cutthroat Trout, Rainbow Trout, Kokanee, Brook Trout), last stocked 1990-10-05.
Kaslo River — 598,315 fish stocked, 1917–1990
Rainbow Trout, Cutthroat Trout, Kokanee, Brook Trout, Bull Trout. Source: Province of BC — FIDQ / FISS Fish Releases via the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC.
| Year | Rainbow Trout | Cutthroat Trout | Kokanee | Brook Trout | Bull Trout |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | · | · | · | · | 1,000 |
| 1984 | · | · | · | · | 10,000 |
| 1983 | · | · | · | · | 10,000 |
| 1981 | · | 7,700 | · | · | · |
| 1978 | · | 5,000 | · | · | · |
| 1954 | 25,000 | · | · | · | · |
| 1948 | · | · | 77,645 | · | · |
| 1947 | · | 18,806 | 38,081 | · | · |
| 1942 | · | 25,000 | · | · | · |
| 1941 | · | 30,000 | · | · | · |
| 1940 | · | 30,103 | · | · | · |
| 1939 | · | 30,000 | 50,000 | · | · |
| 1936 | · | · | · | 20,000 | · |
| 1935 | · | · | · | 32,539 | · |
| 1934 | 20,000 | · | · | 20,441 | · |
| 1933 | · | · | · | 20,000 | · |
| 1930 | · | · | · | 30,000 | · |
| 1929 | · | · | · | 20,000 | · |
| 1928 | · | · | · | 10,000 | · |
| 1926 | · | · | · | 20,000 | · |
| 1925 | · | · | · | 25,000 | · |
| 1917 | · | · | · | 22,000 | · |
Stocking appears to have wound down after 1990. Confirm whether it is still topped up or now fishes as a residual, wild population. The chart below shows the full release history.
The fishing
As moving water, a tributary of Kootenay River, Kaslo River fishes the way rivers of its size do: read the runs and seams, fish a dry-dropper through the warm months, and swing streamers or nymph the deeper slots as flows drop. The stocking record below is the truest read on what you will catch.
Conditions
- Navigability: driftable with caution: wide, low-gradient sections suit a float/raft, but rated rapids or canyon-confined reaches interrupt them; check the drift map (median channel width ~14.6 m, wide; median gradient ~1.3%, gentle; peak mean-annual discharge ~12.137 m³/s, moderate flow; canyon-confined sections with ~133 m walls (DEM)).
Access & the rules
Access for Kaslo River, meaning the roads in, put-ins and any walk-in or seasonal limits, is worth confirming locally before you commit a day. The drainage map shows how the water sits in its valley.
