Silver Spring Lake is a small stillwater in the Elk Valley of the East Kootenay, sitting just north of where the [[elk-river|Elk River]] and [[wigwam-river|Wigwam River]] meet. At 7.69 hectares it barely registers on a map, but a 1961 provincial survey found real depth underneath: a basin running to 14.9 m at its deepest with a 5.2 m mean, and water clear enough to read a Secchi disk to 11.1 m. It has carried a put-grow [[rainbow-trout|rainbow trout]] program for a century, most recently as a steady annual release of yearling Blackwater-strain fish.
The water
The lake's small footprint hides a defined basin: a maximum depth of 14.9 m against a 5.2 m mean signals real structure rather than a shallow bowl, so expect the fish to relate to a shoal-and-drop-off pattern rather than spreading evenly across the surface. The same 1961 survey recorded strong water clarity (Secchi 11.1 m), typical of a spring-fed lake this size.
The fishing
Silver Spring doesn't carry angler reports the way the region's bigger stillwaters do, so the honest starting point is its structure and stocking record: a small, deep-for-its-size put-grow [[rainbow-trout|rainbow trout]] fishery, holding fish sized to a modest yearling-release program a season or two on. That basin shape favours standard [[small-lake-stillwater|small-lake stillwater]] tactics: [[chironomid-under-indicator|chironomid patterns fished under an indicator]] over the drop-off early in the season, with [[woolly-bugger|leech]] and [[balanced-leech|balanced leech]] patterns worth working through the same water as the shallows warm.
A rainbow lake, not really a cutthroat or kokanee one
Access and the rules
Silver Spring sits in the Elk Valley of the East Kootenay, just north of the [[elk-river|Elk River]] and [[wigwam-river|Wigwam River]] confluence. No specific access point, boat launch or trail is confirmed here, so check current road conditions and any private-land crossings in the area before heading in.
Before you fish
Stocking
Silver Spring carries one of the longer stocking records in the region: 74 recorded releases and roughly 370,500 fish since 1920. Through the mid-20th century it rotated through a long list of BC hatchery rainbow strains as fry and fingerlings (Gerrard Creek, Pennask, Cottonwood, Premier, Beaver, Pinantan, Fraser Valley, Tunkwa, Genier and Badger among them). Since 2006 the program has settled into a steady, modest pattern: about 500 yearling rainbow trout every spring, Gerrard-strain through 2011 and Blackwater River strain since 2012 (with one Fraser Valley fingerling release in 2016), most recently 500 fish on 2026-05-05. The full year-by-year release history is below.
Silver Spring Lake — 326,515 fish stocked, 1920–2026
Rainbow Trout, Cutthroat Trout, Kokanee. Source: Province of BC — FIDQ / FISS Fish Releases via the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC.
| Year | Rainbow Trout | Cutthroat Trout | Kokanee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 500 | · | · |
| 2025 | 500 | · | · |
| 2024 | 500 | · | · |
| 2023 | 500 | · | · |
| 2022 | 500 | · | · |
| 2021 | 500 | · | · |
| 2020 | 500 | · | · |
| 2019 | 500 | · | · |
| 2018 | 500 | · | · |
| 2017 | 500 | · | · |
| 2016 | 500 | · | · |
| 2015 | 500 | · | · |
| 2014 | 500 | · | · |
| 2013 | 500 | · | · |
| 2012 | 500 | · | · |
| 2011 | 500 | · | · |
| 2010 | 500 | · | · |
| 2009 | 500 | · | · |
| 2008 | 500 | · | · |
| 2007 | 500 | · | · |
| 2006 | 500 | · | · |
| 2004 | · | 1,000 | · |
| 2002 | · | 1,000 | · |
| 2000 | 1,000 | · | · |
| 1998 | 2,000 | · | · |
| 1996 | 2,000 | · | · |
| 1994 | 2,000 | · | · |
| 1992 | 2,000 | · | · |
| 1991 | 2,000 | · | · |
| 1990 | 2,000 | · | · |
| 1989 | 2,000 | · | · |
| 1988 | 4,000 | · | · |
| 1987 | 2,500 | · | · |
| 1986 | 7,000 | · | · |
| 1984 | 5,000 | · | · |
| 1982 | 1,500 | · | · |
| 1981 | 2,500 | · | · |
| 1980 | 2,500 | · | · |
| 1979 | 2,500 | · | · |
| 1978 | 2,500 | · | · |
| 1968 | 1,500 | · | · |
| 1963 | 11,900 | · | · |
| 1962 | 12,000 | · | · |
| 1961 | 1,600 | · | · |
| 1960 | 1,000 | · | · |
| 1957 | 4,725 | · | · |
| 1955 | 9,000 | · | · |
| 1954 | 4,320 | · | · |
| 1953 | 7,505 | · | · |
| 1952 | 2,000 | · | 1,500 |
| 1951 | 2,000 | · | · |
| 1949 | 8,000 | · | · |
| 1948 | 10,000 | · | · |
| 1947 | 15,000 | · | · |
| 1946 | 10,215 | · | · |
| 1945 | 12,000 | · | · |
| 1944 | 13,000 | · | · |
| 1943 | 16,000 | · | · |
| 1942 | 15,000 | · | · |
| 1940 | 9,000 | · | · |
| 1939 | 13,500 | · | · |
| 1938 | 9,500 | · | · |
| 1932 | 6,750 | · | · |
| 1931 | 7,500 | · | · |
| 1930 | 5,000 | · | · |
| 1929 | 9,500 | · | · |
| 1925 | 24,000 | · | · |
| 1924 | 20,000 | · | · |
| 1920 | 6,000 | · | · |
Conditions
- Depth: max 14.9 m, mean 5.2 m, Secchi 11.1 m (BC provincial lake survey, 1961-08-19). Deep for a 7.69 ha lake, with enough basin to support a real shoal-and-drop-off pattern.
- Stocking: put-grow rainbow trout, roughly 500 Blackwater-strain yearlings released every spring since 2012 (Gerrard-strain from 2006-2011); 74 releases and about 370,500 fish total since 1920. Westslope cutthroat trout (2002, 2004) and kokanee (1952) appear only as isolated historical releases.
