Gillespie Lake near Youbou: Fishing Spots, Seasons and Access

• Overview

  Out in Cowichan Valley Regional District, British Columbia, sits Gillespie Lake. Elevation runs to 809 metres. Surface area runs to about 8 hectares — small enough to read in one session. Some 17 km away sits Youbou, the nearest settlement. Saanich is the closest city, 87 km away. It sits well inside the county, so one set of rules covers it.

• Where to Fish on Gillespie Lake

  Depth remains unrecorded, so treat the first session as a survey. The productive water is a rod length or two out, not a hundred. This is a lake, so the margins and the first drop matter most. Open biodiversity records for Cowichan Valley Regional District list Chinook salmon, sockeye salmon, Coho salmon, Chum salmon and rainbow trout. Several of these carry legal protection or closed seasons; the rulebook comes before the rod. Take Gillespie Lake a stretch at a time.

• Seasonal Patterns

  The range across the year is 1°C to 15°C. Neither winter nor summer shuts things down for long. It should never be assumed safe, whatever the month says. Spring and autumn carry the year; summer squeezes it into the ends of the day. Gillespie Lake fishes to that pattern most years.

• Tackle & Baits

  There is no clear statement anywhere on who can fish it. There is no mapped parking or launch close by, which usually means walking in. For the trout, small spinners and a box of nymphs cover both approaches. Rules differ from one water to the next round here. Fishing rules and camping rules are set separately here. Delphi Lake, 3.2 km away, makes the obvious fallback. Confirm before you fish Gillespie Lake.