Lazaroff Lake in Cariboo Regional District: How and When to Fish It

• Overview

  Lazaroff Lake sits within Cariboo Regional District in British Columbia. The ground round it is lake country bush. The water covers some 39 hectares, so pick a bank rather than trying to cover it all. About 2.6 km of bank, so nothing stays unexplored for long. The nearest place of any size is Quesnel, 30 km away. Kamloops sits 326 km out, and it is the nearest city worth the name. There is no boundary nearby to worry about.

• Where to Fish on Lazaroff Lake

  No chart reached our records; the first cast is your sounding. Bays and points beat straight shoreline every time on water like this. Weed, then depth: that is the order to fish a water of this kind. Cariboo Regional District records list sockeye salmon, Chinook salmon and bull trout among the fish reported. Some of the species recorded here are protected or tightly regulated, so check what may be targeted before you fish. Fish Lazaroff Lake where the bottom changes rather than where it looks deep.

• Seasonal Patterns

  Averages here run 15°C at the top of summer and -9°C at the bottom of winter. The middle months are generous; the ends are demanding. Hard water holds through the cold months, breaking up near mid April. Break-up near mid April, freeze-up near late November: that is the shape of an average year. Just after the ice goes and just before it returns, the fishing lifts. Lazaroff Lake runs to that rhythm year in and year out.

• Tackle & Baits

  We have no record of the rules that apply on this bank. Records list it as a natural water body rather than an impoundment. Nothing in the way of made access shows up nearby: no ramp, no car park, no path. Trout here take small spinners, spoons and, where fly water allows, a nymph or dry. Sort the permit out before you load the car. Where parking is tight, arriving early solves most problems. Should this one be busy, Nelson Kenny Lake is 6.8 km off. Treat Lazaroff Lake as unsettled until someone local tells you otherwise.