The water
Moyie Lake is a stocked stillwater on the Moyie River, the Kootenay River tributary that runs south through Yahk into Idaho. The lake covers roughly 598 hectares and drops to a surveyed maximum depth of 57 m, averaging 32 m across the basin, making it one of the deeper stocked lakes in the East Kootenay.
Stocking
For an angler judging whether the drive is worth it, the release record is the fishing report. Provincial hatchery records run from 1901 to 2025 and log 227 releases into Moyie Lake, totalling roughly 6.8 million fish. Rainbow trout carry the bulk of it (157 releases, about 3.2 million fish), kokanee add close to 2.9 million fish across 49 releases, and westslope cutthroat trout round it out at about 710,000 fish over 17 releases. The oldest record on file, from 1901, is a small experimental planting of Bay of Quinte bass and sunfish, long gone from the lake today.
Moyie Lake — 6,824,983 fish stocked, 1901–2025
Rainbow Trout, Cutthroat Trout, Kokanee, Other. Source: Province of BC — FIDQ / FISS Fish Releases via the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC.
| Year | Rainbow Trout | Cutthroat Trout | Kokanee | Other |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | · | · | 85,000 | · |
| 2024 | · | · | 85,000 | · |
| 2022 | · | · | 86,000 | · |
| 2021 | 17,469 | · | 87,230 | · |
| 2020 | · | · | 85,000 | · |
| 2018 | 7,500 | · | · | · |
| 2017 | 12,343 | · | 71,199 | · |
| 2016 | 75,780 | · | 72,761 | · |
| 2015 | 18,107 | · | · | · |
| 2014 | 130,738 | · | · | · |
| 2013 | 114,329 | · | 186,233 | · |
| 2012 | 60,000 | · | 180,000 | · |
| 2011 | 103,338 | · | 180,000 | · |
| 2010 | 55,485 | · | 180,000 | · |
| 2009 | 59,865 | · | 50,000 | · |
| 2008 | 19,160 | · | 46,000 | · |
| 2007 | 10,000 | · | 91,962 | · |
| 2006 | 37,225 | · | 46,000 | · |
| 2005 | 15,000 | 15,900 | 46,000 | · |
| 2004 | 43,150 | · | 46,000 | · |
| 2003 | 137,300 | · | 46,000 | · |
| 2002 | 283,226 | · | 29,000 | · |
| 2001 | 195,221 | · | · | · |
| 2000 | 92,620 | · | 92,000 | · |
| 1999 | 278,929 | · | 100,000 | · |
| 1998 | 52,460 | · | · | · |
| 1997 | 40,000 | · | 100,000 | · |
| 1996 | 172,254 | · | 100,000 | · |
| 1995 | 77,271 | · | · | · |
| 1994 | 262,217 | · | · | · |
| 1993 | 660 | · | · | · |
| 1992 | 75,390 | · | · | · |
| 1991 | 280 | · | · | · |
| 1990 | 60 | · | · | · |
| 1989 | 25,125 | · | · | · |
| 1988 | 333 | · | · | · |
| 1987 | 5,213 | 30,000 | · | · |
| 1986 | 1,500 | · | · | · |
| 1984 | 58 | · | 7,500 | · |
| 1981 | 178 | · | · | · |
| 1963 | 20,000 | · | · | · |
| 1961 | 28,700 | · | · | · |
| 1960 | 19,933 | · | · | · |
| 1959 | 17,290 | · | · | · |
| 1958 | 54,920 | · | · | · |
| 1953 | 41,200 | 15,000 | · | · |
| 1952 | 50,681 | 25,320 | · | · |
| 1951 | 15,115 | 25,860 | 40,000 | · |
| 1950 | 10,375 | 16,000 | · | · |
| 1949 | 38,470 | 10,000 | 100,000 | · |
| 1948 | 15,000 | 25,000 | 100,000 | · |
| 1947 | 14,455 | 30,000 | 50,000 | · |
| 1946 | 14,037 | 49,335 | 100,000 | · |
| 1945 | · | 66,465 | 100,000 | · |
| 1944 | 42,000 | · | 100,000 | · |
| 1943 | 37,730 | 13,000 | 100,000 | · |
| 1942 | 71,334 | 43,080 | 75,000 | · |
| 1941 | 46,000 | · | · | · |
| 1940 | 44,350 | · | · | · |
| 1939 | 60,000 | · | · | · |
| 1933 | · | 100,000 | · | · |
| 1930 | · | 73,800 | · | · |
| 1929 | 5,000 | 5,814 | · | · |
| 1926 | · | 125,000 | · | · |
| 1923 | · | 105,000 | · | · |
| 1918 | 60,000 | · | · | · |
| 1901 | · | · | · | 150 |
The three species now age at different rates. Cutthroat trout were last stocked in 2005 (Connor-strain yearlings) and rainbow trout in 2021 (Fraser Valley-strain fingerlings), so both fisheries now run on residual and naturally recruiting fish rather than fresh annual plants. Kokanee are the one program still active every year: the most recent releases, in June 2025, put 85,000 fry (Lussier River strain) into the lake, following similar plants in 2022 and 2024.
The fishing
Moyie Lake fishes as a two-tier stillwater: a shallow shoal-and-drop-off program that suits rainbow trout and westslope cutthroat trout, and a deep, cold basin that holds kokanee once the surface warms. Work a Chironomid or Balanced Leech under an indicator over the shoals and drop-offs early in the season (Chironomid Under Indicator is the standard rig), then follow the Hot-Weather Stillwater Tactics playbook once summer sets up a thermocline (the warm-water layer that pushes trout deep): push a full-sink line and a Woolly Bugger along the drop-offs, or troll for the kokanee suspended over the main basin. Chironomids, Leeches and scuds are the general stillwater forage base here, and an evening rise is worth covering with match-the-hatch dries once the surface cools.
Before you fish
Conditions
- Depth: the province's 1958 survey put Moyie Lake at 57 m at its deepest, averaging 32 m across the basin, a genuinely deep lake for a stocked East Kootenay water. Expect fish to hold near cooler water at depth once the surface warms through summer.
- Water-health signal: excellent (health index 60), built from 11 aquatic species logged across 296 observations, one of the stronger reads among the region's stillwaters.
