Upper Clarke Lakes

Towards the South end of Upper Clarke Lake #2

North End of Upper Clarke Lake #2

South End of Upper Clarke Lake #3

North End of Upper Clarke Lake #3

Upper Clark Lakes

I was off to explore the Upper Clark Lakes and made a real amateur blunder. It was hot and with my bad back I thought I would really reduce my pack and leave my net at home. Hadn’t I heard that they were all small fish here anyhow?

Now, I was perched on a log along the muddy shore at Upper Clark Lake 2 with a nice rainbow trout nearly 40 centimetres in length. For about ten heart-stopping minutes, it lept and ran my line out before I was able to bring it to hand to lift it onto shore. None to soon, for as I lifted it the hook slipped from its jaw and I dropped it into the weeds. I quickly dispatched it, clean it of innards and gills and put it on ice to show my wife when I got home. In this hot weather it is important not to let such a prize spoil.

Over the next half hour I manage to play and release a couple more fish that were slightly smaller, however there was no shade here and the heat was getting to me. Time to move on and check out Upper Clark Lake 3.

Half an hour later I was repeating this scenario on Upper Clarke Lake 3, only this time I was on a fairly steep shoreline. Again a nice rainbow trout was quickly dispatched and put on ice. Over the next hour with a little more shade, I landed about 8 more fish between 20 and 40 centimetres length, but all were spawners and were gently release back into the water.

Both of these lakes are fairly easy to reach. Take the Weyerhaeuser 201 Road from Okanagan Falls for roughly 22 kilometres, past the Allendale Lake Road and cabin on the right hand side. The road to the Upper Clark Lakes is off to the right and just past it the road to Lower Clark Lake heads off to the left. I like to park here and hike to the Upper Clark Lakes, but it is possible to drive the fairly rough road to them, although there are a few wet and muddy sections.

Parking here I take the first road to the right and then keep to the left. At about 400 metres the road splits and there is a little creek and dam. This is Upper Clark Lake 2, a little smaller than it was when the dam was fully functional. Now most of the shoreline is shallow grass and muddy with some old snags here and there. It is rather shallow even at the north end where there is a large steep rock outcropping. The annual stocking appears to be 1000 rainbow trout and there is obviously a good survival rate and some nice fish here.
It was another 280 metres down the road on the west side of the lake to reach the end where I checked out the waters beneath the rock outcrop. This was where I landed the nice fish.

About 1.2 kilometres further up the road you reach Upper Clark Lake 3. It is nothing like first lake. It is much larger, appears to be quite deep, the sides are mainly quite steep and it is treed right to the water’s edge. It is reasonably easy to fish from shore, but it would not be to hard too carry a light canoe into this lake. Again records show over the last few years an annual stocking of 1000 rainbow trout. From the banks it was possible to watch lots of large trout cruising around, I’ll definitely hike the canoe in here when I’m feeling better.