Saugum Lake is a 29.3-hectare stillwater southwest of Lakit Mountain, in the St. Mary River watershed of the East Kootenay. It carried a mixed brook trout, rainbow trout and bull trout fishery for most of three decades, but the provincial stocking record has been quiet since 2010.
The water
Saugum sits in the same corner of the St. Mary River drainage as Saugum Creek and Lakit Creek, a few kilometres to the south and southeast. At 29.3 hectares by the BC lake gazetteer, it is a modest stillwater, and no provincial bathymetric survey covers it, so depth and structure are unconfirmed. Twenty-six recorded plantings between 1982 and 2010 put roughly 48,850 fish into the lake: brook trout carried most of the program, with smaller additions of rainbow trout and a single, one-off release of bull trout.
The fishing
The release record is the clearest picture of what Saugum holds. Brook trout carried the program almost every year from 1986 to 2010, about 42,000 fish across 19 releases, most of them logged as wild-origin Aylmer-strain transplants rather than hatchery-reared fish, with only the final 2010 release (6,000 fingerlings) coming from the Aylmer hatchery itself. That steady run of small wild transplants, rather than one-off large stockings, suggests a population that has held on between plantings rather than depending on them, though no fisheries survey confirms natural reproduction here. Rainbow trout went in six times for about 5,500 fish, split between early Premier-strain fish (1982-1984, the same broodstock line behind Premier Lake's program) and Fraser Valley-strain catchables in the mid-2000s. Bull trout appear only once, 1,350 wild Upper Arrow-strain fish released in August 1983, a single historical transplant rather than an ongoing program.
With no release recorded since 2010 and no bathymetric survey to point to a deep basin or shoal structure, Saugum reads as an unmapped small-lake fishery. The standard approach for East Kootenay stillwaters of this size applies: a chironomid or small leech pattern fished under an indicator (chironomid under an indicator), covering the water column the way most of the region's small-lake stillwater fisheries are worked. Treat any fish you find as an older holdover rather than a fresh plant.
A lapsed stocking program
Access and the rules
No boat launch, parking area or trailhead has been confirmed for Saugum Lake; check locally before planning a trip. No separate Saugum Lake entry appears in the current Region 4 (Kootenay) synopsis, so the regional stillwater defaults apply.
Before you fish
Stocking
For an angler judging whether the drive is worth it, the release history below is the fishing report. Provincial hatchery records run from 1982 to 2010 and log 26 releases into Saugum Lake, totalling roughly 48,850 fish across brook, rainbow and bull trout.
Saugum Lake — 48,850 fish stocked, 1982–2010
Rainbow Trout, Brook Trout, Bull Trout. Source: Province of BC — FIDQ / FISS Fish Releases via the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC.
| Year | Rainbow Trout | Brook Trout | Bull Trout |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | · | 6,000 | · |
| 2007 | 500 | · | · |
| 2006 | 500 | · | · |
| 2005 | 500 | · | · |
| 2004 | · | 2,000 | · |
| 2003 | · | 2,000 | · |
| 2002 | · | 2,000 | · |
| 2001 | · | 2,000 | · |
| 2000 | · | 2,000 | · |
| 1999 | · | 2,000 | · |
| 1998 | · | 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 | · |
| 1988 | · | 2,000 | · |
| 1987 | · | 2,000 | · |
| 1986 | · | 2,000 | · |
| 1984 | 1,000 | · | · |
| 1983 | 1,000 | · | 1,350 |
| 1982 | 2,000 | · | · |
Brook trout carried almost the whole program (about 42,000 fish, 1986-2010), most of it small annual transplants of wild Aylmer-strain fish rather than large hatchery drops. Rainbow trout were a secondary presence (about 5,500 fish, 1982-2007), and bull trout appear only as a single 1,350-fish transplant in 1983. With no release recorded after 2010, Saugum now reads as a wound-down stillwater fishery rather than an active one.
Conditions
- Stocking: a lapsed mixed program, 26 releases and roughly 48,850 fish between 1982 and 2010, brook trout carrying most of the total. No release has followed since 2010, though the water still appears on the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC's stocked-waterbody list.
- Depth and structure: no provincial bathymetric survey covers Saugum Lake, so maximum depth, mean depth and shoal structure are unconfirmed.
