Wilson Lake

Region

Kootenays

Management unit

MU 4-17

Species

Rainbow Trout, Kokanee (last recorded 1995)The newest of these fish records is from 2013.Species from the province's fish observation records.

Lake size

Medium Lake (50 - 500 ha)

Ice fishing

No ice fishing closure on file

Coordinates

50.2361, -117.6322

A year is when the Province last recorded the fish here, not a statement that it is caught today.

Best times of year at Wilson Lake

• May - June
• September - October

We have no lake specific regulations on file for Wilson Lake yet.

13.8 km of traced road to the campground by way of Wilson Creek North FSR, Wilson Creek Seven FSR and Wilson Lake Rd. The road at the end is a rough surface. It stops 120 m short of the campground.

Coordinates: 50.2361, -117.6322

Camping and rec sites at Wilson Lake

• Wilson Lake East

  Campsites

  4 designated

  To the shore

  18 m

  
  Access: Access from Rosebery: Turn off Highway 6, at Rosebery, onto the "East Wilson Creek Road". This road soon turns into the "Wilson Creek Forest Service Road". Follow this good 2 wheel drive gravel road. At 5 km the road forks, stay left. At 33 km a dirt road crosses the "Wilson Creek Forest Service Road", continue on the gravel road to the left. "Wilson Lake East Recreation Site" is straight ahead, at 34 km, just before the road crosses a bridge over Fitzstubbs Creek. Access from Nakusp: From the junction of Highway 6 and 23 in Nakusp, travel east on Highway 6 towards New Denver for 6.3 km. Turn left onto the "Wilson Lake Road". Take this good 2 wheel drive, gravel road up Wensley Creek, past the sawmill. 7 km up the road, turn right onto the "Wilson Lake Forest Service Road". Follow this rough 2 wheel drive road for 7 km, as it climbs steeply over the rocky bluffs south of Wilson Lake. Several spur roads come onto it from the right. Stay straight ahead at all of these, eventually descending to the shore of Wilson Lake. The recreation site at the end of the lake, is visible across the lake, from the last steep descent.
  Coordinates: 50.233689, -117.603375

  The site on Recreation Sites and Trails BC

• Wilson Lake W

  Campsites

  2 designated

  To the shore

  28 m

  
  Coordinates: 50.241038, -117.662648

85 mdeepest31.6 mmean

Wilson Lake runs to 85 m (279 ft) at its deepest, by the Province survey, 1970.

The mean of 31.6 m (104 ft) is read off the same chart, surveyed in January 1970.

The Province sounded Wilson Lake and published the depth chart surveyed in 1970.

• Depth chart (PDF)

Modelled from air temperature, not an ice report. It says nothing about whether ice will hold you.

In the model Wilson Lake froze in 65 of the 65 winters since 1960. Freeze-up falls most years between 8 November and 24 November, and ice-off between 17 April and 30 April. The median winter freezes on 16 November and opens on 24 April.

the middle half of modelled winters the median ice cover in the median winter

Winter 2024-25 in the model: frozen from 26 November 2024 to 14 April 2025, 139 days.

No ice fishing closure is recorded for Wilson Lake, so the general regional regulations apply.

Whether a lake is open to ice fishing says nothing about whether its ice will hold you. Ice conditions vary year to year and across a single lake. Check locally before going out, every time.

Averaged over a year, the air above Wilson Lake is 1.1 C warmer than it was in the 1960s. That is 66 years of daily readings, not a forecast.

• +1.1 Csince the 1960s
• 6.8 Caverage year now
• 5.6 Caverage year then
• -13 daysbelow freezing, change

Open Wilson Lake in the app

• Horseshoe Lake 2 km away
• Little Wilson Lake 4 km away
• Kimbol Lake 4 km away
• Box Lake 7 km away
• Hamling Lakes 9 km away

All 162 lakes in the Kootenays, with today's conditions on each.

• How the score works
• Depth, and where the trout are
• A year on a trout lake
• Fishing chironomids
• Reading a depth chart
• Trout and char of BC lakes
• Camping at rec site lakes
• Winterkill explained
• When the ice goes off