Rainbow trout
Good
Under the ice where it is safe: small jigs and bait near the bottom in shallow bays. On open rivers, nymphs slow and deep.
Shuswap Lake Fishing Report
Updated Mon, Nov 9, 2026 from live weather and water data
Shuswap Lake at Blind Bay: a live level that rises with the spring snowmelt, and rainbow trout, lake trout, bull trout and kokanee under the lake’s own quotas, bait ban and surcharge stamps.
3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Level
344.90 m
Air / High
2 °C / 11 °C
Wind
ENE 7 km/h
Sources: Water Survey of Canada station 08LE111, Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.
Today's Fishing Report
Shuswap Lake has cold water and fish that move for very little; fish the warmest hours. The gauge reads 344.90 m, holding steady. Today brings cloud cover, wind ENE around 6 km/h, rising pressure near 1019 hPa and a high of 12 °C. Water sits around 6 °C for the season (estimated). With the new moon, the solunar majors run 11:45 PM-1:45 AM and 12:03 PM-2:03 PM: the windows to build the day around.
Lake trout
Slow
The ice season where it is open and the ice is safe: tube jigs and bucktails worked over 15 to 30 metres of water.
Tie on: Jigging spoon through the ice · Dead-stick minnow · Tip-up with dead bait · Tungsten jig and wax worm. Prime windows: 11:45 PM-1:45 AM, 12:03 PM-2:03 PM, 8:38 AM-9:38 AM. Cooler at 9 °C with likely rain: fish ahead of the front. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.
Before you go
British Columbia requires a fishing licence for most fishing, from C$11.43. British Columbia fishing licence: cost, rules and where to buy →
Chasing rainbow trout here? Check the size and bag limits with BC Freshwater Fishing before you keep anything; the Rainbow trout page has the seasons and the tactics.
Fishing times for Shuswap Lake today
Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today from sunrise (08:03), sunset (17:18), the moon and today's score. Tap a bar to see why.
Bite planner
Solunar majors 11:45 PM-1:45 AM and 12:03 PM-2:03 PM; minor 8:38 AM-9:38 AM. New Moon, 0% lit.
Shuswap Lake Level today, and the weather
Live readings from Water Survey of Canada station 08LE111 (SHUSWAP LAKE AT BLIND BAY).
Lake level, last 30 days
Water Survey of Canada real-time hydrometric data, station 08LE111. Latest reading 2026-11-09 02:15.
Right now
Latest readings
Air temp2 °C
High / Low11 °C / 2 °C
WindENE 7 km/h, gusts 8 km/h
Pressure101.90 kPa, rising
Sky / Rain84% cloud, 75%
Sunrise / Sunset08:03 / 17:18
MoonNew Moon, 0%
Water temp (seasonal)~6 °C est.
7-day fishing forecast: which day to fish Shuswap Lake
The best day on Shuswap Lake this week looks like Wednesday Nov 11, at 4 out of 5, against 3 today.
Best day this week: Wednesday, Nov 11 — good at 4/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.
Today, Nov 9 — Fair
A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
- Solunar majors
- 11:45 PM-1:45 AM and 12:03 PM-2:03 PM
- Minor period
- 8:38 AM-9:38 AM
- Sun
- 08:03 to 17:18
- Moon
- New Moon, 0% lit
- Sky and wind
- Showers, 10 km/h
- Rain chance
- 75%
Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out.
Species guide
The species that matter on Shuswap Lake: seasons written for the Canadian year, and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.
Rainbow trout
Lakes: ice-off to June and September to freeze-up; rivers through the open season
Open all year Open all year outside the closed areas below, with no ice fishing, a bait ban and single barbless hooks. Rainbow trout 1 a day, none under 50 cm, 5 a year; char (lake trout and bull trout) 1 a day, none under 60 cm, 5 a year; kokanee 5, none from streams. Lake trout must be released 15 October to 31 January. Rule as read from Government of British Columbia on 2026-09-27.
Canada’s most stocked sport fish, in thousands of BC, Alberta and prairie lakes and in the famous rivers, the Bow first among them. Wild rainbows in the rivers; stocked fish in most small lakes. Under the ice where it is safe: small jigs and bait near the bottom in shallow bays. On open rivers, nymphs slow and deep.
Kokanee
Late spring and summer
Open all year Open all year outside the closed areas below, with no ice fishing, a bait ban and single barbless hooks. Rainbow trout 1 a day, none under 50 cm, 5 a year; char (lake trout and bull trout) 1 a day, none under 60 cm, 5 a year; kokanee 5, none from streams. Lake trout must be released 15 October to 31 January. Rule as read from Government of British Columbia on 2026-09-27.
Landlocked sockeye of the BC interior lakes: Okanagan, Kootenay, Shuswap and many smaller lakes. Schools in open water and feeds on plankton. Out of season.
Lake trout
Ice season, and spring after ice-off
Open all year Open all year outside the closed areas below, with no ice fishing, a bait ban and single barbless hooks. Rainbow trout 1 a day, none under 50 cm, 5 a year; char (lake trout and bull trout) 1 a day, none under 60 cm, 5 a year; kokanee 5, none from streams. Lake trout must be released 15 October to 31 January. Rule as read from Government of British Columbia on 2026-09-27.
The big char of cold, deep lakes: Lake Simcoe, the Kootenay and Shuswap systems, the northern lakes. A winter favourite through the ice, where the season allows. The ice season where it is open and the ice is safe: tube jigs and bucktails worked over 15 to 30 metres of water.
Bull trout
Summer and fall
Open all year Open all year outside the closed areas below, with no ice fishing, a bait ban and single barbless hooks. Rainbow trout 1 a day, none under 50 cm, 5 a year; char (lake trout and bull trout) 1 a day, none under 60 cm, 5 a year; kokanee 5, none from streams. Lake trout must be released 15 October to 31 January. Rule as read from Government of British Columbia on 2026-09-27.
A native char of the cold mountain rivers of BC and Alberta, a predator of other fish. Protected in Alberta, where every bull trout must be released; limits vary by water in BC. Slow and deep, if the water is open to fishing.
Closed parts of this water today: Salmon Arm Bay (until 2027-01-01). No fishing 1 September to 31 December in Salmon Arm Bay, west of a line from Engineer’s Point to Sunnybrae Point, to protect chinook and coho; anglers on the Salmon Arm community pier are exempt. Government of British Columbia.
When to come: the Shuswap Lake calendar
Activity by species and month for the Canadian year, and how the water warms and cools. Tap any cell.
Species activity by month
1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted. January is midsummer here.
J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Rainbow trout
Kokanee
Lake trout
Bull trout
SlowPeak
Water temperature through the year
Typical surface temperature for this water type in degrees Celsius; today is around 6 °C (estimated, not a reading).
Angler reports
Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. Nothing here is copied from a shop or a charter. The water log below tracks each day automatically.
No angler reports yetBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Shuswap Lake today.
Water log, last days
Auto-logged from live dataSun, Nov 8
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Rainbow trout led the card at good. High of 13 °C, wind to 19 km/h.
Sat, Nov 7
3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Rainbow trout led the card at good. High of 11 °C, wind to 13 km/h.
Fri, Nov 6
4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Rainbow trout led the card at excellent. High of 11 °C, wind to 16 km/h.
Before you go
Licence
BC freshwater fishing licence, from C$11.43 for a resident adult, with higher prices for other Canadians and visitors. Details and where to buy →
Regulations
Size and bag limits, closed seasons and protected areas are set by BC Freshwater Fishing and, in salt water and for salmon, by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and change: confirm the current rules on the agency page linked from the British Columbia licence page before you keep anything. The zone-by-zone seasons and limits are on British Columbia fishing seasons.
Access
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About this water
Shuswap Lake is a lake in British Columbia, Canada, covered from the British Columbia reports and listed in all Canada waters.
Fishing Shuswap Lake: the full guide
Shuswap Lake
Shuswap Lake lies in British Columbia’s southern interior, in the province’s Thompson-Nicola fishing region, Region 3, an H-shaped lake whose four long arms are named Salmon, Main, Anstey and Seymour. The province’s 2022 water quality assessment gives it a surface area of 310 km², an average depth of 62 m and a maximum of 171 m in Seymour Arm, and describes it as the nursery lake of the Adams River sockeye. Its water leaves through Little Shuswap Lake and the South Thompson River toward the Fraser. The live level on this page is read at Blind Bay, one of the lakeside communities BC Parks lists.
The level and the Blind Bay gauge
The gauge is station 08LE111, SHUSWAP LAKE AT BLIND BAY, listed by the Water Survey of Canada with the BC Ministry of Environment as contributor. It measures level only, in metres on the Geodetic Survey of Canada datum, and its readings of roughly 345 to 348 m line up with the province’s figure of about 347 m above sea level for the lake. The station is new, with a daily record from September 2023. In its first two full years the lake peaked in mid-June, at 347.48 m on 15 June 2024 and 347.95 m on 13 June 2025, between 2.5 and 3 m above each year’s lowest reading. The provincial assessment cites an older lake gauge at Salmon Arm, station 08LE070, with records from 1951.
What drives the level
The assessment classes both the Salmon Arm lake gauge and the outflow gauge on the South Thompson at Chase as natural, not regulated; the regulated inflow is the Shuswap River, controlled upstream at the Sugar Lake and Wilsey dams before it reaches Mara Lake. In the assessment’s words, the lake is highest in June and July, after the spring freshet, and lowest in March and April. Its catchment of 17,478 km² is more than fifty times the lake’s surface. The BC River Forecast Centre publishes snow survey and water supply bulletins from January to June, and posts warnings and advisories when the flood risk is high.
Species and seasons
Rainbow trout, kokanee, lake trout and bull trout, which the synopsis also calls Dolly Varden, are the main sport fish, and BC Parks adds burbot and whitefish; the assessment counts 30 valued fish species in the watershed and cites a description of the lake’s rainbow trout fishery as world-class. The Shuswap Lake rules, which cover Little Shuswap Lake, Mara Lake and the Seymour, Anstey and Salmon arms, read: Rainbow trout daily quota = 1 (none under 50 cm), annual quota = 5; Char daily quota = 1 (none under 60 cm), annual quota = 5; bait ban, single barbless hook; No Ice Fishing. Kokanee fall under the Region 3 quota of 5, none from streams, and the regional rules require lake trout to be released from October 15 to January 31. Three areas close from March 15 to May 14: the west end toward Little Shuswap Lake, where rainbow trout and char are catch and release for the rest of the year, the whole area north of Albas in Seymour Arm, and the Sicamous end east of Murdock and Semaphore points.
Where to fish it
BC Parks lists a large boat launch at Shuswap Lake Park, on the old Scotch Creek delta on the north shore of the Main Arm, 19 km from Highway 1 at Squilax, and another at Herald Park on the west shore of the Salmon Arm, 14 km from the Trans-Canada at Tappen; it adds that Sicamous, Chase, Salmon Arm and Canoe and several private marinas have launches. The same pages call trolling deep the most popular technique on the lake. The lake stratifies in summer, which sends trout and kokanee down, and it seldom freezes over. Salmon Arm Bay, west of a line from Engineer’s Point to Sunnybrae Point, is closed to fishing from September 1 to December 31 to protect chinook and coho, except from the community pier in the city of Salmon Arm, where the bait ban does not apply either.
Streams and the seasons around the lake
Region 3 closes its streams to fishing from January 1 to June 30, apart from the waters its tables exempt, and allows only single barbless hooks in them all year, so fish the creek mouths with care. Scotch Creek, the Eagle River, the Anstey River and the Seymour River below the falls are catch and release for rainbow trout and char, and the Salmon River, which reaches the lake at Salmon Arm, is closed from July 30 to September 15, tributaries included. Bass and yellow perch are closed to fishing across the region. The province posts in-season changes on its fishing regulations page, under Region 3; none named Shuswap Lake on 30 September 2026.
Licence and stamps
Fishing the lake takes a BC freshwater licence, covered on our British Columbia fishing licence page. To keep a rainbow trout over 50 cm, the basic licence must carry the Shuswap Lake rainbow trout conservation surcharge stamp, and a lake trout or bull trout over 60 cm needs the Shuswap Lake char stamp; the fish must be recorded on the licence at once, and keeping one requires a paper licence. Anyone who releases every fish over those sizes needs no stamp. Salmon in fresh water are managed by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and keeping any salmon other than kokanee needs the non-tidal salmon stamp as well as an open DFO fishery.
Common questions
Is the Shuswap Lake level controlled by a dam?
The province classes the lake level and the outflow at Chase as natural. The Shuswap River, which reaches the lake through Mara Lake, is regulated upstream at the Sugar Lake and Wilsey dams, but the lake itself follows the snowmelt and is highest in June and July.
Do I need a special stamp to fish Shuswap Lake?
Only to keep large fish: a rainbow trout over 50 cm needs the Shuswap Lake rainbow trout stamp, and a lake trout or bull trout over 60 cm the Shuswap Lake char stamp.
Can you ice fish on Shuswap Lake?
No: the synopsis lists No Ice Fishing for Shuswap Lake, and the province notes that the lake seldom freezes over anyway.
Is fishing good at Shuswap Lake right now?
Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Nearby waters
Where this page's numbers come from
- Water level and flow readings
- Environment and Climate Change Canada, Water Survey of Canada real-time hydrometric data, station 08LE111 — SHUSWAP LAKE AT BLIND BAY
- Open-Meteo forecast model
- https://open-meteo.com/
- Moon and solunar windows
- Calculated on this site
- Pages checked
- www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/sports-recreation-arts-and-culture/outdoor-r
- www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/sports-recreation-arts-and-culture/outdoor-r
- www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/environment/air-land-water/water/waterqualit
- bcparks.ca/shuswap-lake-park
- bcparks.ca/herald-park
- api.weather.gc.ca/collections/hydrometric-annual-peaks/items?STATION_N
- The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on How our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.