Rocky Point Lake is a small stocked rainbow trout stillwater in the Columbia Valley, sitting in the hills south of the Spillimacheen River between Radium Hot Springs and Golden. It carries rainbow trout on one of the East Kootenay's longer-running put-grow programs, with 67 recorded releases stretching from 1957 to 2026.
The water
The province's 1971 reconnaissance survey put Rocky Point Lake at 27.6 hectares, with a maximum depth of 14.6 m and a mean depth of 4.6 m, and a surface pH of 7.7. That gap between the mean and the maximum points to a genuine shoal ringing a deeper basin rather than a uniform bowl, the kind of profile that gives a stillwater both a workable chironomid flat and a cooler refuge once summer sets in.
Stocking
For an angler weighing whether Rocky Point is worth the drive, the release record is the fishing report. Provincial hatchery data logs 67 releases between 1957 and 2026, totalling roughly 394,000 rainbow trout, the lake's only stocked species throughout that record. Strains have shifted over the decades (Premier, Tunkwa, Badger, Genier, Gerrard Creek, Spahomin Lake and Fraser Valley stock all appear earlier in the history), but the modern program has settled into a steady annual top-up: about 2,500 Pennask-strain yearlings from the Beaver hatchery source each spring, most recently 2,500 fish released May 28, 2026. Every fish in the lake today is part of that same recent Pennask cohort rather than a mixed-age holdover population.
Rocky Point Lake — 394,162 fish stocked, 1957–2026
Rainbow Trout. Source: Province of BC — FIDQ / FISS Fish Releases via the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC.
| Year | Rainbow Trout |
|---|---|
| 2026 | 2,500 |
| 2025 | 2,500 |
| 2024 | 2,500 |
| 2023 | 2,500 |
| 2022 | 2,500 |
| 2021 | 2,500 |
| 2020 | 2,500 |
| 2019 | 2,500 |
| 2018 | 2,500 |
| 2017 | 2,500 |
| 2016 | 2,500 |
| 2015 | 2,500 |
| 2014 | 2,500 |
| 2013 | 2,500 |
| 2012 | 2,500 |
| 2011 | 2,500 |
| 2010 | 2,500 |
| 2009 | 2,500 |
| 2008 | 2,500 |
| 2007 | 2,500 |
| 2006 | 2,500 |
| 2005 | 2,500 |
| 2003 | 8,000 |
| 2002 | 8,000 |
| 2001 | 8,000 |
| 2000 | 8,000 |
| 1999 | 8,000 |
| 1998 | 8,000 |
| 1997 | 8,000 |
| 1996 | 8,000 |
| 1995 | 8,000 |
| 1994 | 8,000 |
| 1993 | 8,000 |
| 1992 | 12,000 |
| 1990 | 8,000 |
| 1989 | 4,000 |
| 1988 | 4,000 |
| 1987 | 8,000 |
| 1986 | 8,000 |
| 1985 | 8,000 |
| 1984 | 4,000 |
| 1983 | 8,000 |
| 1982 | 8,000 |
| 1981 | 11,000 |
| 1980 | 8,000 |
| 1979 | 8,000 |
| 1978 | 8,000 |
| 1977 | 8,000 |
| 1976 | 10,000 |
| 1975 | 10,000 |
| 1973 | 12,000 |
| 1972 | 11,500 |
| 1971 | 20,000 |
| 1970 | 7,000 |
| 1969 | 15,000 |
| 1968 | 15,000 |
| 1966 | 6,160 |
| 1965 | 6,000 |
| 1964 | 6,162 |
| 1963 | 4,950 |
| 1962 | 2,160 |
| 1960 | 2,500 |
| 1959 | 2,750 |
| 1958 | 3,450 |
| 1957 | 1,530 |
The fishing
Rocky Point fishes as a straightforward put-grow stillwater: the yearlings planted each spring are the fish on the line that season, growing out on the lake's natural forage rather than arriving pre-grown. Work the shoal water with a Chironomid under an indicator (Chironomid Under Indicator is the standard rig) early in the season, and drop a Woolly Bugger or small leech pattern toward the 14.6 m basin once the shallows warm, following the general Hot-Weather Stillwater Tactics approach used on comparable Kootenay put-grow lakes.
Before you fish
Access and the rules
No boat launch, trailhead or parking area has been confirmed for Rocky Point Lake. It sits in the Columbia Valley backcountry south of the Spillimacheen River, a stretch of the region reached from backroads off Highway 95 between Radium Hot Springs and Golden; confirm a legal approach and any private-land or seasonal restrictions locally before committing a day to it. Wilbur Lake and Three Island Lake sit within a couple of kilometres and share the same stocked-lake cluster, worth checking alongside it.
Conditions
- Depth: the 1971 provincial survey found Rocky Point Lake moderate overall (mean 4.6 m) with a deeper basin reaching 14.6 m and a surface pH of 7.7, consistent with the calcium-rich stillwaters common through the Columbia trench.
- Stocking: a near-continuous rainbow trout program since 1957, now running as an annual plant of about 2,500 Pennask-strain yearlings; no other species has been stocked here.
