Premier Lake or Lazy Lake Open Water?

[ABLT7]

Planning to head out next week, so does anyone have any info about either Premier or Lazy Lake near Kimberley/Cranbrook? I was hoping there was no ice and the chironomids were starting up.
Thanks in advance.

[goldscud]

look open

[Parker Hale]

The ice is just off at Premier, but it has been pretty chilly around here the last week. We need a good warm stretch to get the chronnies going.

[brewster29]

Premier lake has fished very poorly the last two winters, and last spring/summer had the worst chironomid fishing I have ever seen there. I know the lake well and 30-40 fish days had been the norm in previous years, last year I got skunked several times. Ice fishing was a bust for me as well last winter. My friends that camp and fish there have similar stories. The spawning area had maybe 200 fish last spring when several thousand has been the norm in previous years. Local fisheries staff have no answers...they abandoned their egg harvesting program and removed their net raft last year. I won't be wasting any of my fishing days there this year.

Lazy lake can be good or completely dead, depending on weather.

Both are open.

[Kingfisher]

Originally Posted by brewster29

Premier lake has fished very poorly the last two winters, and last spring/summer had the worst chironomid fishing I have ever seen there. I know the lake well and 30-40 fish days had been the norm in previous years, last year I got skunked several times. Ice fishing was a bust for me as well last winter. My friends that camp and fish there have similar stories. The spawning area had maybe 200 fish last spring when several thousand has been the norm in previous years. Local fisheries staff have no answers...they abandoned their egg harvesting program and removed their net raft last year. I won't be wasting any of my fishing days there this year.

Lazy lake can be good or completely dead, depending on weather.

Both are open.

Unfortunately, I have heard the exact same reports from Premier Lake. It used to be a decent lake. The last 2 years were so bad that they have stopped the brood stocking program altogether. It could take a long time for them to figure out what has happened to the lake. It could take a very long time for the lake to recover.

[Wes_G]

Its been probably 4 years now since I last fished Premier. We were out in July and I only caught 3 or 4 fish over the 5 days we were there. We used to have some pretty great evenings out in the float tubes back in the day, but I hardly even saw any fish even in the shallows on the far north side of the lake either. Was a disappointing trip compared to what the fishing used to be.

[ABLT7]

We fished Premier for one day last week. We were the only boat on the water. No one was camping in the campground and no one else around other than some people by their cabins at the north end.

I only saw little fish on the fish finder and no regular size fish. I did notice there were loons on the lake diving down, so maybe there is small fry around. Normally we would see trout in the shallows or near the boat launch but nothing this time.

I guess local knowledge is confirming that the lake is dead. It's too bad as the scenery is awesome and the fish had a nice taste.