Canyon Lake

CANYON LAKE

Canyon Lake is a little lake nestled in behind Little White Mountain. I had been there years go, but never to fish. It could be reached from the Myra Forest Service Road or via the Weyerhaeuser Road 201. This was the route today, up from Okanagan Falls until nearly the 57 kilometre mark there I turned left on the Greyback Forest Service Road. After the 59 kilometre sign Canyon Lake Forest Service Road branched to the right. I would not recommend taking a tent trailer or motor home down this decommissioned road. The 7.7 kilometres is fairly rough and I angled across the ditches to prevent dragging the bottom or trailer hitch. The trip was made interesting by sighting deer and rabbits along the road. At the lake there is a short and reasonably steep access road to the lake. It was fairly rough and wet, so I parked well back and went investigate further.

A brief walk to the outlet creek of Canyon Lake quickly confirmed my belief that this little out of the way lake should produce some fast fishing action. I could see many small fish darting about in the deep channel. A quick trip to the jeep for the fly rod and I soon knew they were hungry. The fly dropped into the water brought a flurry of strikes. Now to try the lake itself to see what kind of fish it held.

Dropping the canoe into the water I carefully manoeuvred it through the narrow cannel to open water. An osprey flying overhead and a loon on the water were an indication of a healthy fish population. Heading into a slight breeze, I paddled to the other end of the lake checking it out and planning of fishing while drifting back to the creek. As I approached the swampy head of the lake a mule deer doe was up to its chest in water browsing and cooling down. Finally it sensed me and bound away.

The solar tables in the GPS now predicted two hours of good fishing activity, this was one time they seemed to be right on. Several times I drifted the length of this 18 hectare lake getting strike after strike on the tiny fly with a peacock feather body. In two hours I actually landed and released about 50 fish and kept 5 about 25 cm. long. Some fish will go considerably bigger, but most I caught were between 15 to 20 cm. in length.
It is a fairly shallow lake on the whole and this combined with the elevation likely keep the fish fairly small. If this trip was any indication it’s a great lake to introduce your youngster to the sport of fishing. I’d recommend a canoe of boat though, as there are not a great many of spots where it can be easily fished from shore.

There is a bit of change in the water level but does not appear to have the drastic draw down of many of the high mountain lakes that are dammed for domestic water or irrigation. The shore line is not cluttered with fallen trees, but one side has a lot of overhanging brush where the activity seemed particularly good.

Anchoring just casting distance from the bushy shore is a good idea. When fishing with more than one person in a boat or canoe, I recommend using two anchors to keep the craft from spinning and making it difficult to cast without getting in another persons way.

During the fall, leave the kids fishing while you seek out the wily bucks nearby. This is definitely one lake to keep in mind.