Moose Lake is a small stillwater in the rainbow trout country of the East Kootenay's Kootenay River watershed, carried almost entirely by the provincial stocking program. No wild population is on record here: the fishery is whatever the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC puts in.
The water
Moose Lake is catalogued in the provincial gazetteer as a Kootenay River watershed water (waterbodyIdentifier 00374KOTR, watershed code 349-666200-32000), which ties its outflow to the Kootenay River system, though the exact outflow creek is not separately named in the data on file. No lake survey, area figure or bathymetric data has turned up for Moose Lake, so its size, depth and shoreline character remain unconfirmed. Treat the coordinate carried here as the point recorded against its stocking releases, not a surveyed fix, until confirmed on the ground.
Stocking
For an angler judging whether the fishing is worth the drive, the stocking record is the fishing report. Moose Lake carries a put-grow rainbow trout program: 69 recorded releases between 1938 and 2026, entirely rainbow trout. The most recent plant, on 2026-05-29, was 2,000 yearling rainbow trout of the Blackwater R strain, out of the province's Blackwater broodstock line.
Moose Lake — 234,371 fish stocked, 1938–2026
Rainbow Trout. Source: Province of BC — FIDQ / FISS Fish Releases via the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC.
| Year | Rainbow Trout |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 3,000 |
| 2025 | 3,000 |
| 2024 | 3,000 |
| 2023 | 3,000 |
| 2022 | 3,000 |
| 2021 | 3,000 |
| 2020 | 3,000 |
| 2019 | 3,074 |
| 2018 | 3,014 |
| 2017 | 3,123 |
| 2016 | 3,073 |
| 2015 | 3,000 |
| 2014 | 2,300 |
| 2013 | 1,500 |
| 2008 | 1,000 |
| 2007 | 1,000 |
| 2006 | 1,000 |
| 2005 | 1,000 |
| 2004 | 2,000 |
| 2003 | 2,000 |
| 2002 | 2,000 |
| 2001 | 2,000 |
| 2000 | 2,000 |
| 1999 | 2,000 |
| 1998 | 2,000 |
| 1997 | 2,000 |
| 1996 | 2,000 |
| 1995 | 1,000 |
| 1994 | 1,000 |
| 1993 | 4,000 |
| 1992 | 4,000 |
| 1991 | 4,000 |
| 1990 | 4,000 |
| 1989 | 4,000 |
| 1980 | 2,000 |
| 1979 | 2,000 |
| 1978 | 2,000 |
| 1977 | 3,500 |
| 1976 | 5,000 |
| 1975 | 5,000 |
| 1974 | 5,000 |
| 1973 | 12,500 |
| 1972 | 3,000 |
| 1971 | 2,000 |
| 1970 | 10,000 |
| 1969 | 6,000 |
| 1968 | 7,000 |
| 1966 | 4,400 |
| 1965 | 5,000 |
| 1962 | 6,300 |
| 1961 | 23,860 |
| 1958 | 12,000 |
| 1957 | 19,727 |
| 1938 | 14,000 |
That near-century run, almost unbroken spring to spring, makes Moose Lake one of the East Kootenay's longer-standing put-grow fisheries: whatever you catch here is a yearling or slightly older fish from a recent plant, not a wild holdover.
The fishing
With no confirmed depth, size or shoreline structure on record, fish Moose Lake on standard small East Kootenay stillwater lines until a local report says otherwise: chironomids under an indicator over any shoal or drop-off structure, and balanced leech or Woolly Bugger retrieves worked slowly along deeper edges, are the everyday approach to rainbow holding over Chironomids (Midges) and Leeches, the standard forage base of small BC put-grow lakes. A searching dry such as an Adams is worth a look on a calm evening.
Access and the rules
No confirmed boat launch, parking area or shoreline access point has been found for Moose Lake. It sits in the East Kootenay's Kootenay River watershed; confirm the access route and current Region 4 rules locally before committing a day to it.
