Pickering Lake sits in the Bull River watershed of the East Kootenay, alongside Chain Lake and Deep Lake in the same drainage. No size, depth or access survey has been found for it, so its seven-decade stocking record, running from rainbow trout in the 1950s to an Aylmer-strain brook trout program that has held steady since, is the clearest picture of what the lake actually holds.
The water
No lake survey, area figure or bathymetric data is on record for Pickering Lake. It is catalogued in the provincial lake gazetteer as a Bull River watershed water (waterbodyIdentifier 00145BULL, watershed code 349-337300), which ties its outflow to the Bull River system, though the exact outflow creek is not separately named in the data on file.
Stocking
For an angler judging whether to make the stop, the release record is the fishing report. Provincial hatchery data logs 91 releases between 1952 and 2026, totalling 306,292 fish: 271,431 brook trout over 77 releases and 34,861 rainbow trout over 14 releases.
Pickering — 306,292 fish stocked, 1952–2026
Rainbow Trout, Brook Trout. Source: Province of BC — FIDQ / FISS Fish Releases via the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC.
| Year | Rainbow Trout | Brook Trout |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | · | 3,000 |
| 2025 | · | 3,000 |
| 2024 | · | 3,000 |
| 2023 | · | 3,000 |
| 2022 | · | 3,000 |
| 2021 | · | 3,000 |
| 2020 | · | 3,000 |
| 2019 | · | 3,000 |
| 2018 | · | 3,000 |
| 2017 | · | 3,000 |
| 2016 | · | 3,000 |
| 2015 | · | 3,000 |
| 2014 | 2,057 | 3,000 |
| 2013 | 2,000 | 3,000 |
| 2012 | 2,000 | 3,600 |
| 2011 | 2,000 | 3,000 |
| 2010 | 2,500 | 3,000 |
| 2009 | 2,012 | 3,000 |
| 2008 | 1,600 | 3,000 |
| 2007 | · | 4,140 |
| 2006 | · | 4,000 |
| 2005 | · | 3,000 |
| 2004 | · | 3,000 |
| 2003 | · | 3,000 |
| 2002 | 1,000 | 7,000 |
| 2001 | · | 4,300 |
| 2000 | · | 8,750 |
| 1999 | · | 3,000 |
| 1998 | · | 3,920 |
| 1997 | · | 3,000 |
| 1996 | · | 3,000 |
| 1995 | · | 3,000 |
| 1994 | · | 3,000 |
| 1993 | · | 3,000 |
| 1992 | · | 3,000 |
| 1991 | · | 3,000 |
| 1990 | · | 3,000 |
| 1989 | · | 3,000 |
| 1988 | · | 3,000 |
| 1987 | · | 3,000 |
| 1986 | · | 5,400 |
| 1985 | · | 3,000 |
| 1984 | · | 3,000 |
| 1983 | · | 3,000 |
| 1982 | · | 3,000 |
| 1981 | · | 3,000 |
| 1980 | · | 3,000 |
| 1979 | · | 3,000 |
| 1978 | · | 3,000 |
| 1977 | · | 3,000 |
| 1976 | · | 5,726 |
| 1975 | · | 5,000 |
| 1974 | · | 4,400 |
| 1972 | · | 3,000 |
| 1970 | · | 5,000 |
| 1969 | · | 5,000 |
| 1968 | · | 5,000 |
| 1967 | · | 9,900 |
| 1966 | · | 10,000 |
| 1965 | · | 10,000 |
| 1964 | · | 10,300 |
| 1963 | · | 9,900 |
| 1962 | · | 9,975 |
| 1961 | · | 3,220 |
| 1960 | · | 4,800 |
| 1959 | · | 3,100 |
| 1957 | 8,192 | · |
| 1955 | 1,500 | · |
| 1953 | 5,000 | · |
| 1952 | 5,000 | · |
The program has changed character twice. The earliest record, 1952 to 1957, is rainbow trout fry and fingerlings from the Pennask and Beaver hatchery stocks. From 1959 the lake switched to brook trout, and by 1972 the program had settled on Aylmer-strain fish, the strain still going in every spring: a steady 3,000 fingerlings a year, most recently on 2026-04-10. A secondary Fraser Valley-strain rainbow trout fall-catchable program ran alongside it from 2008 to 2014, adding larger, close-to-legal-size fish most autumns, but no rainbow trout release has been recorded since 2014, so today's fishery is effectively single-species: brook trout, one cohort of fresh fingerlings arriving each spring on top of the last two or three years' holdovers.
The fishing
With no confirmed depth or shoreline structure on record, treat Pickering Lake as a standard small East Kootenay stillwater until it is checked against local reports: work a chironomid under an indicator or a small leech over the shoals and flats, and switch to a slow-fished Woolly Bugger on an intermediate line as a searching pattern once the surface warms. Because the fingerling plant runs most springs, expect a mix of the newest brook trout alongside holdovers from the last two or three years' releases rather than a single year class.
Before you fish
Access and the rules
No confirmed boat launch, parking area or shoreline access point has been found for Pickering Lake. It sits in the Bull River watershed of the East Kootenay; confirm the access route, any private-land sections, and current Region 4 rules locally before committing a day to it.
Conditions
- Depth: no bathymetric survey on record for Pickering Lake.
- Stocking: active put-grow program. Aylmer-strain brook trout fingerlings most springs since 1972, with a Fraser Valley-strain rainbow trout fall-catchable program that ran 2008-2014 and has not been repeated since.
