Small Lakes Recreational Stocking
Over the spring and fall of 2023, our hatcheries raised and released 4.92 million rainbow trout, coastal cutthroat trout, westslope cutthroat trout, eastern brook trout, and kokanee into 648 lakes across British Columbia. The fish are stocked from fry to catchable size to support the provincial recreational fishing program. Click on the links below to see the annual stocking summary report for each region of the province.
Region 1: Vancouver Island
55 lakes stocked with 150,198 rainbow trout, 6,950 kokanee and 11,300 coastal cutthroat trout.
Region 2: Lower Mainland
40 lakes stocked with 92,325 rainbow trout and 4,000 coastal cutthroat trout.
Region 3: Thompson-Nicola
173 lakes stocked with 827,911 rainbow trout, 127,200 kokanee, and 106,515 brook trout.
Region 4: Kootenay
95 lakes stocked with 232,528 rainbow trout, 52,717 kokanee, 13,750 brook trout, and 2,346 westslope cutthroat. Note – we also stocked 2,786,415 kokanee eggs into Meadow and Summit Creeks for the Kootenay Lake recovery initiative.
Region 5: Cariboo
94 lakes stocked with 1,393,684 rainbow trout, 887,086 kokanee, and 62,500 brook trout.
Region 6: Skeena
16 lakes with 51,000 rainbow trout, 4,300 kokanee, and 11,000 brook trout.
Region 7A: Omineca
50 lakes with 221,250 rainbow trout, 85,800 kokanee, and 61,070 brook trout.
Region 7B: Peace
13 lakes with 32,200 rainbow trout and 12,000 brook trout.
Region 8: Okanagan
112 lakes with 435,481 rainbow trout, 7,000 kokanee, and 28,400 brook trout.
Coastal Rivers Anadromous Stocking
In partnership with the provincial and federal governments, we released 210,795 steelhead smolts into eight rivers in the Lower Mainland, and 27,829 for release into the Somass River on Vancouver Island. Our Vancouver Island Trout Hatchery also released 8,548 anadromous coastal cutthroat smolts into the Oyster River.
If you’re interested in learning more about the species and strains of fish we stock, check out the Stocked Strains section of our website.
The Freshwater Fisheries Society thanks the dedicated anglers of British Columbia who supported us, and the stocking program, through the purchase of their freshwater fishing licences this year.
Author: Staff, Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC