Elk/Bever Lake

Patrick Keating

New Member
Hello Fellow Bass Fisherman,

Ill be in Victoria July 10-15th for the first time. I would love to do some fishing and meet some anglers in the area.

Does anyone have any plans to fish these lakes during this time period? If any of you have an empty spot on a boat please let me know, I'm willing to pay!

Thanks!
 
There is a fishing wharf near the north end of the lake on the side opposite the highway. I think they mostly get trout there. Decades ago we use to get the odd Small Mouth from shore on the highway side right next to the highway where they had put some large rock fill into the lake, which made some hiding spaces for them. I have heard that there are also some introduced Carp in the lake now. There is a popular trail system that goes completely around Elk and Beaver lakes, really it is just one large lake. As a kid I use to get trout and large sunfish out of them.
 
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There is a fishing wharf near the north end of the lake on the side opposite the highway. I think they mostly get trout there. Decades ago we use to get the odd Small Mouth from shore on the highway side right next to the highway where they had put some large rock fill into the lake, which made some hiding spaces for them. I have heard that there are also some introduced Carp in the lake now. There is a popular trail system that goes completely around Elk and Beaver lakes, really it is just one large lake. As a kid I use to get trout and large sunfish out of them.

There are more than a few carp in there. There’s shytloads of them, and they are BIG!!

I have a buddy who fishes them and said they’re real tanks to fight.
 
There are more than a few carp in there. There’s shytloads of them, and they are BIG!!

I have a buddy who fishes them and said they’re real tanks to fight.

Does your friend fish them from a boat or from shore? How many pounds? How are they for eating or does he release them? Perhaps OK for Fish and Chips, Chowder or seasoned Fish Balls?
 
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Does your friend fish them from a boat or from shore? How many pounds? How are they for eating or does he release them? Perhaps OK for Fish and Chips, Chowder or seasoned Fish Balls?

He told me he's caught some in the 12 pound range, but they go much bigger. Like 20 pounds. He's fishing them from shore with a spinning rod.

He doesn't eat them, I think he just lets them go. He should probably be throwing them in the bush as they're an invasive species but it's too far gone to be managed by a few guys with fishing rods trying to eradicate them from the lake. It would need to be poisoned. Years ago (10 years maybe?) I saw huge schools of them in there then. I wonder how many are in there now!!
 
He told me he's caught some in the 12 pound range, but they go much bigger. Like 20 pounds. He's fishing them from shore with a spinning rod.

He doesn't eat them, I think he just lets them go. He should probably be throwing them in the bush as they're an invasive species but it's too far gone to be managed by a few guys with fishing rods trying to eradicate them from the lake. It would need to be poisoned. Years ago (10 years maybe?) I saw huge schools of them in there then. I wonder how many are in there now!!

Sounds like they would make excellent crab bait. I have not fished the lake in many years but it could be some fun to pick up some crab bait. I guess there would be a learning curve with a new fishing method. I wonder if Englishman has fished them much. He does have the famous Carp Rod he uses for salmon fishing out at Sooke.

What kind of impact have the invasive carp had on trout, bass and sunfish? Is the Province still stocking the lake annually with trout? I also have a vague memory of someone putting American Bull Frogs in the lake and if true that would be another invasive species that could be messing up the lake.
 
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Sounds like they would make excellent crab bait. I have not fished the lake in many years but it could be some fun to pick up some crab bait. I guess there would be a learning curve with a new fishing method. I wonder if Englishman has fished them much. He does have the famous Carp Rod he uses for salmon fishing out at Sooke.

What kind of impact have the invasive carp had on trout, bass and sunfish? Is the Province still stocking the lake annually with trout? I also have a vague memory of someone putting American Bull Frogs in the lake and if true that would be another invasive species that could be messing up the lake.

There are trout, carp, largemouth and smallmouth bass, brown bullheads (catfish), sunfish, yellow perch and bullfrogs. That’s the species list I personally know of, there could be more now. It’s a multicultural environment for sure. Lol

I haven’t fished there in eons, maybe somebody has fresh info on the state of trout fishing there. Used to be some good ones in there 10-20 years ago.
 
Unless your taking them home, it's best to just let them carp go. It's a heavily used park. The water is already swampy enough without dead carp floating around or rotting on the bank. Not like you actually making a dent in their population.
 
Hello Fellow Bass Fisherman,

Ill be in Victoria July 10-15th for the first time. I would love to do some fishing and meet some anglers in the area.

Does anyone have any plans to fish these lakes during this time period? If any of you have an empty spot on a boat please let me know, I'm willing to pay!

Thanks!
Good morning, on that coming weekend, the BC rowing Championship is going on x 3 days, the lake will be busy with rowers and their support crew. They will also have many line for tracks in the water. Not the best time to fish but if you keep to shores and Beaver Lake it would be better.
 
Looks like it is stocked with 18000 catchable Rainbow Trout annually. The original 3 native species were Cutthroat Trout, Brown Bullhead Catfish and Prickly Sculpin.

https://www.crd.bc.ca/education/our...watersheds/elk-beaver-lake-watershed/wildlife

http://www.fishingwithrod.com/articles/region_one/elk_lake.html

Brown bullhead are not native to elk lake let alone anywhere west of the Rockies, instead they were introduced in the early 1900s. Stickleback however were once a common native fish to elk lake, however with the introduction of invasive fish like bass, perch, etc they’re eradicated.
 
All invasive species should be bonked in my opinion. Island outfitters used to have a year long derby of how many pounds of carp you could catch. I used to see guys bring in bags of them.
If bass were introduced by the government are we supposed to bonk and dispose of them then? They seem to be normalised in BC now. So I don't feel comfortable bonking haha
 
If bass were introduced by the government are we supposed to bonk and dispose of them then? They seem to be normalised in BC now. So I don't feel comfortable bonking haha
How about brown trout in the the Cowichan and other lakes and rivers? Invasive species seem to have become valued by some, but the fact remains they don’t really belong here. Tough conversation to have with some as they are quick to rationalize that which they like and as quick to condemn that which they don’t.
 
If bass were introduced by the government are we supposed to bonk and dispose of them then? They seem to be normalised in BC now. So I don't feel comfortable bonking haha
If Bass where introduced by the gov't or freshwater society and are not impacting other species then by all means they would be welcome. Now Brown trout in the Cowichan where introduced in the early 1900's and to this day a lot of people enjoy that upper Cowie fishery. Now Brown's feed on Steely smolts / salmon fry among other things but they are invasive to that river. Now i for one would rather catch a 8-10 lb steelhead compared to a 2-3 lb brown all day long. Now guess what happens when i catch a Cowichan Brown !!
 
Browns have displaced cuttys on the Cowie. Bass are a new predator and seriously effect the food chain on whatever body of water they have been planted in. That being said, they are both invasive and should be removed IMO.

I have found bass to be excellent eagle food.
 
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Elk lake basically has 1 native species now, the Prickly sculpin. Stickleback have been wiped out by bass and perch, cutthroat trout have difficulty making it past the dam at Colquitz river beaver lake dam. This happens in other lakes where invasive fish are released, but many people don’t care because a little minnow going extinct is something that they simply don’t care about. In my opinion a native fish is infinitely more important to an ecosystem than an invasive fish. Only reason we keep bass is because they’re “fun to catch” despite destroying entire ecosystems.
 
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