Nancy Greene Lake sits at the head of Blueberry Creek, northwest of Rossland in the West Kootenay, at roughly 31.7 hectares. It has been a working put-grow rainbow fishery for over half a century, with the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC's records showing releases running back to 1969.
The water
A 1987 provincial lake survey put Nancy Greene Lake at a maximum depth of 7.4 m and a mean depth of 3.8 m, with 4.9 m of Secchi-disk clarity, cool and reasonably clear for a low-elevation stillwater. That profile means most of the lake is shoal or gentle drop-off rather than deep basin, so the fish, and the productive water, sit closer to the margins than the middle.
The fishing
Nancy Greene Lake fishes as a classic put-grow stillwater: work chironomids under an indicator over the shoals and drop-offs where the lake's modest depth concentrates feeding fish, switching to leech and attractor retrieves as the water warms through summer. The rainbow trout here are almost entirely hatchery-origin fish growing on into the lake's forage rather than a wild, self-sustaining population, so size and numbers track the stocking record closely.
Stocking
For an angler judging whether the fishing is worth the drive, the stocking record is the fishing report. Since 1969, Nancy Greene Lake has been stocked in most years with catchable-size rainbow trout; the 2025 release put in 2,000 yearling Blackwater-strain rainbow, the strain that has carried most of the program since the early 2000s, after earlier decades that also used Pennask, Premier, Gerrard and Fraser Valley broodstock. The chart below shows the full release history.
Nancy Greene Lake — 240,463 fish stocked, 1969–2025
Rainbow Trout. Source: Province of BC — FIDQ / FISS Fish Releases via the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC.
| Year | Rainbow Trout |
|---|---|
| 2025 | 2,000 |
| 2024 | 3,950 |
| 2023 | 5,163 |
| 2022 | 5,250 |
| 2021 | 6,600 |
| 2020 | 6,000 |
| 2019 | 6,000 |
| 2018 | 6,000 |
| 2017 | 6,000 |
| 2016 | 6,000 |
| 2015 | 6,000 |
| 2014 | 6,000 |
| 2013 | 6,000 |
| 2012 | 6,000 |
| 2011 | 6,000 |
| 2010 | 6,000 |
| 2009 | 6,000 |
| 2008 | 1,000 |
| 2007 | 1,000 |
| 2006 | 1,000 |
| 2005 | 1,000 |
| 2002 | 3,000 |
| 2001 | 3,000 |
| 1999 | 3,000 |
| 1997 | 3,000 |
| 1995 | 3,000 |
| 1993 | 3,000 |
| 1992 | 3,000 |
| 1991 | 3,000 |
| 1990 | 5,000 |
| 1989 | 5,000 |
| 1988 | 5,000 |
| 1987 | 5,000 |
| 1986 | 2,500 |
| 1981 | 10,000 |
| 1980 | 6,000 |
| 1979 | 10,000 |
| 1978 | 10,000 |
| 1977 | 12,000 |
| 1976 | 12,000 |
| 1975 | 13,000 |
| 1971 | 10,000 |
| 1970 | 5,000 |
| 1969 | 7,000 |
What Blackwater strain means on the water
Access and the rules
Confirm the launch, parking, and any motor or seasonal restrictions for Nancy Greene Lake locally before you commit a day; the exact boat-launch and shoreline-access situation for this lake has not been confirmed here. The map in the rail shows where the lake sits at the head of the Blueberry Creek drainage northwest of Rossland.
