The water
North Caribou Lake sits in BC's West Kootenay, paired with South Caribou Lake a few hundred metres to the south. No lake survey, depth, clarity or surface area, is on file for it, and the roads, launch and parking situation hasn't been confirmed; treat it as an unconfirmed-access lake until that's checked locally.
The fishing
North Caribou Lake was a put-grow fishery, not a self-sustaining one. Its entire recorded catch traces to stocked rainbow trout, with 40 releases logged between 1968 and 2011, most recently 2,000 yearling Gerrard-strain fish planted in 2011. Stocking appears to have stopped after that; confirm locally whether the lake still holds a residual population of grown-out fish or has gone back to whatever wild recruitment it can manage on its own.
Fish it with standard small-lake stillwater tactics until a local report says otherwise: a chironomid under an indicator worked over the shoals in spring, leech and attractor patterns like a Woolly Bugger fished along any drop-offs as the water warms, and a switch to dry-fly and emerger patterns if you find fish rising in the evening.
Read the stocking record as the fishing report
Stocking
North Caribou Lake — 126,500 fish stocked, 1968–2011
Rainbow Trout. Source: Province of BC — FIDQ / FISS Fish Releases via the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC.
| Year | Rainbow Trout |
|---|---|
| 2011 | 2,000 |
| 2010 | 2,000 |
| 2009 | 1,500 |
| 2008 | 1,500 |
| 2007 | 1,500 |
| 2006 | 1,500 |
| 2005 | 1,500 |
| 2004 | 1,500 |
| 2003 | 1,500 |
| 2002 | 1,500 |
| 2001 | 1,500 |
| 2000 | 1,500 |
| 1999 | 1,500 |
| 1997 | 2,000 |
| 1996 | 2,000 |
| 1995 | 2,000 |
| 1994 | 2,000 |
| 1993 | 2,000 |
| 1992 | 2,000 |
| 1991 | 2,000 |
| 1990 | 2,000 |
| 1989 | 2,000 |
| 1987 | 2,000 |
| 1986 | 2,000 |
| 1985 | 2,000 |
| 1984 | 2,000 |
| 1983 | 2,000 |
| 1982 | 2,000 |
| 1981 | 2,000 |
| 1980 | 4,000 |
| 1979 | 2,000 |
| 1978 | 2,000 |
| 1977 | 3,000 |
| 1975 | 7,000 |
| 1974 | 11,000 |
| 1973 | 12,000 |
| 1972 | 5,000 |
| 1971 | 13,000 |
| 1970 | 10,000 |
| 1968 | 5,000 |
Conditions
- Species held: rainbow trout only (Gerrard strain), all of it stocked; no other species on record.
- Program: put-grow, appears dormant since the last recorded release in 2011.
- Water-quality/health signal: no bathymetry or mollusc survey on file for this lake.
Access and the rules
Access, launch and parking details for North Caribou Lake have not been confirmed and still need a field or source check; the coordinate above marks the fish-presence point recorded in the provincial stocking data, not a verified access point. Confirm both the route in and the current regulations before you commit a day to it.
