Buntzen Lake — the biggest trout drop in the Lower Mainland
Anmore · ~40 minutes from Vancouver · written for a first cast, September 2026 · reviewed 5 September 2026
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Two gates stand between you and this lake, and they are open in opposite seasons. From 14 May to 7 September you need a free parking reservation to drive in at all. For the rest of the year you need nothing — but the entrance gate locks at a time that changes twelve times a year, and in late October that is 6 pm. The useful accident of those two rules is that the trout go in outside the pass season, both times: late October and late March through April. On the days that actually matter here you never need a reservation. You just need to be back at your car before dark.
What actually swims here
Buntzen is a BC Hydro reservoir in the hills above Port Moody — long, narrow and deep, with steep rocky drop-offs instead of the weedy margins you get at a lowland lake like Deer. That one difference decides how you fish it: you can reach real depth from the bank here, which is rare this close to the city.
Stocked
Rainbow trout — and there are a lot of them
The Freshwater Fisheries Society has stocked this lake every year on record since 2007, and rainbows since long before that. Recent years run 2,700 fish in the fall and 5,000–6,000 across two or three spring loads.
That makes Buntzen the heaviest-stocked lake in the Lower Mainland on our forecast — roughly twice what Sasamat next door gets, and five times Deer Lake.
They go in at about 225–250 g, so 30–35 cm. Regional quota, 4 a day.
Resident
Cutthroat trout — the ones nobody stocks any more
Coastal cutthroat were stocked here heavily from 1982 to 1995 — about 170,000 fish — and then the programme stopped. What you catch now is what the lake has kept going on its own.
Fewer, warier and better-looking than the hatchery rainbows. They count against the same trout quota.
Most likely early and late in the day, close to shore, away from the beaches.
Resident
Kokanee and northern pikeminnow
Kokanee — landlocked sockeye, small and deep. A summer fish, and mostly a boat fish.
Northern pikeminnow take over the shallows in summer. If everything you catch in July is a slim silver fish with a big mouth, that is what it is.
Neither is a reason to plan a trip. They are the reason a July trip disappoints if you came for trout.
The map
North is up. One road in, one gate, one parking area — and then 10 km of trail around a lake whose east shore is the fishable one. North Beach has no road: it is a 4 km walk, a bike ride or a paddle.
Schematic, not to scale — it shows the order of landmarks and which shoreline is worth walking to. The two thin arcs across the lake are the floating bridge at the south end and the suspension bridge at the north. Green marks water you can fish from the bank; red marks the gate, the dam and the closed stretch of Powerhouse Road.
The stocking, which is the whole reason to come
Nobody publishes next year’s stocking schedule, so the dates below are a forecast from twenty years of records at this lake — the same model behind the stocked lake planner. Read the window, not the date.
Fall — one truck, late October
Due around 23 October 2026, window 9 October to 6 November. High confidence: nineteen years of records, and the last nine falls all landed between 28 September and 31 October.
About 2,700 fish in a single load. Last year’s went in on 22 October 2025.
This is the better of the two seasons for a beginner: cool water, fish holding shallow, and almost nobody in the park.
Watch the gate. From 12 October it locks at 6 pm, and from 26 October at 5:30 pm — which is close to last light anyway.
Spring — two or three trucks, March into May
Due around 3 April 2027, window 20 March to 17 April. Twenty years of records.
But the forecast models one release per season and spring is really several. In 2026 the fish came in three loads — 2,700 on 12 March, 300 on 31 March, 3,000 on 21 April — for about 6,000 fish. 2025 was two loads, 2024 was two, 2023 was two.
So treat the spring bar as the start of a season, not a date. Mid-March through late April is all live.
Recent spring totals: 6,000 in 2026, 6,000 in 2025, 6,000 in 2024, 6,000 in 2023.
Getting in — the gate and the pass
The summer parking pass
14 May to 7 September 2026. Free, but mandatory: without one you are turned away at the gate.
Book at bchydro.com/buntzen or in the Yodel app. Passes are released daily at 7 am for the following day, in morning, afternoon and full-day slots.
Tied to a licence plate and a phone number, non-transferable. Staying past your slot can get you towed.
Arriving by bike or on transit needs no pass at all. That is the loophole worth knowing on a hot Saturday.
Neither stocking falls inside this window — the fall fish go in six weeks after it closes, the spring fish six weeks before it opens.
The gate hours, which change all year
It opens at 8 am every day of the year. It is the closing time that moves, and the gate is a real gate — late back and your car spends the night inside.
3 Nov – 25 Jan
4:30 pm
26 Jan – 15 Feb
5 pm
16 Feb – 1 Mar
5:30 pm
2 – 8 Mar
6 pm
9 – 22 Mar
7 pm
23 Mar – 12 Apr
7:30 pm
13 Apr – 23 Aug
8 pm
24 Aug – 13 Sep
7:30 pm
14 – 27 Sep
7 pm
28 Sep – 11 Oct
6:30 pm
12 – 25 Oct
6 pm
26 Oct – 2 Nov
5:30 pm
From November to late January you get eight and a half hours of access, and only part of that is daylight. Winter here is a midday trip or no trip.
Without a car
182 runs from Port Moody Centre Station to Anmore daily, leaving about a 2 km walk to South Beach.
179 runs from Coquitlam Central Station hourly on weekends and holidays, and goes to the lake itself.
Transit riders and cyclists skip the summer pass entirely.
Where you actually park
There is one lot that matters — South Beach, about 2 km in from the gate. Boat launch, docks, washrooms, picnic shelter.
North Beach has no road access. It is roughly 4 km up the trail, or a paddle. Quieter water, and the walk keeps the crowds off it.
On a warm weekend outside pass season the lot still fills by mid-morning. In late October it will not.
The rules — and the one people get backwards
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Buntzen Lake has no line of its own in the Region 2 synopsis. Anglers who learned on Deer Lake or Burnaby Lake often assume every city lake carries a special rule, and here that is wrong in your favour: with no waterbody-specific entry, the regional defaults apply and the lake is open all year. No single-barbless requirement, no bait ban, no reduced quota.
Quotas
Trout/char: 4 per day, of which no more than 1 over 50 cm, and no more than 1 char — and no char under 60 cm, which in practice means you release them.
Possession is two daily quotas, so 8.
Rainbows and cutthroat come out of the same count.
Per person, per day. An under-16 angler beside you has their own.
Hooks and bait
No single-barbless requirement here. In Region 2 that rule covers streams; Buntzen is an unlisted lake, so trebles are legal and bait is legal.
Pinch the barbs anyway if you intend to release anything — it costs you nothing and the fish keeps its jaw.
Worm, deli shrimp, roe, single eggs and scented artificials all work here, and all of them are legal.
Boats — a park rule, not a fishing rule
No power boats. Small battery-powered electric motors are allowed — which is unusual for a lake this close to town, and different from Deer, Burnaby and Browning, where the province bans motors outright.
That prohibition is BC Hydro’s, as the landowner. The fishing regulations say nothing about boats here.
PFDs for every person aboard, enforced. Launch at South Beach; canoes, kayaks, float tubes and paddleboards are all fine.
The licence
BC freshwater licence only. No tidal licence, no Salmon Conservation Stamp — there are no salmon in this lake.
Required at 16 and over; residents under 16 do not need one and still get their own quota.
The licence year runs 1 April to 31 March. Annual, 8-day and 1-day are all sold online; carry it and photo ID.
Park rules with teeth
No alcohol or drugs — BC Hydro says this is enforced by the RCMP, and it is.
No open fires anywhere, and no camping.
Dogs on leash except in the two designated off-leash areas and the off-leash trail, which is reached from the right-hand side of the beach.
Can you eat them?
Yes, and with fewer caveats than most lakes near the city. There is no consumption advisory for Buntzen, and no industrial history in the watershed — it is a protected drinking-and-power reservoir with forest around it.
Hatchery rainbows are the ones to keep: they went in at 225–250 g a few weeks earlier and have not been in the lake long enough to accumulate anything.
Let the cutthroat go. Nothing has restocked them since 1995, so every one you catch is from a population keeping itself alive.
It is a working reservoir, and that is a safety fact
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Water levels change here without warning, because a power station downstream decides them. BC Hydro is explicit that sudden changes in flow can happen at any time, and that the depth of water over the drop-offs varies with the reservoir level. A rock ledge you waded to in the morning can be under a metre of water in the afternoon. Do not wade out to anything you would not want to swim back from, keep children away from the dam and the intakes, and treat the shoreline you fished last month as unknown until you look at it again.
The shore itself
Steep and rocky in most places — good for reaching depth, unforgiving if you slip. Boots, not sandals.
Drop-offs are sudden. The lake gets deep fast, which is exactly why the fishing from the bank is good.
Powerhouse Road between North Beach and Buntzen Dam is closed to pedestrians after a rockslide. That is the west-side route; use the trail.
Sharing it
This is a swimming and hiking park with fish in it, not a fishing lake with a trail. In summer the beaches are packed — look behind you before every backcast, and fish away from the swim areas.
Off pass season the park empties out and the whole east shore is usually yours.
Leave it clean
Pack out every scrap of line. This is the fastest way to get shore fishing restricted in a park that does not have to allow it.
No fires means no fires, including for cooking what you caught.
Never move fish between lakes. Sasamat is ten minutes away and they are not the same water.
What to bring
The one rod
A 6′6″ to 7′ light or medium-light spinning rod, 2500 reel, 6–8 lb mono covers everything here.
Nothing heavier is needed — the biggest fish you are likely to meet is a carryover rainbow, not a salmon.
From the docks
The docks at South Beach are the easiest start, and the deepest water a beginner can reach without walking.
Cast out, count the lure down 10 to 20 seconds, then retrieve. Fresh-stocked fish sit just off the bottom in the first days.
Small spoons and spinners, retrieved with occasional pauses. The pause is where the take comes.
Bait, which is legal here
Dew worm, deli shrimp, single egg or roe, under a float or on a light bottom rig.
Scented artificial dough is the low-fuss version and works well on hatchery fish.
A float set 1.5–3 m is the best all-round setup off the east shore.
From a boat
Trolling a small leech pattern or a spoon along the drop-offs covers water fast on a big lake.
Fly gear from a float tube works the shallow bays at either end early and late.
Electric motor if you have one — and a PFD for everyone aboard, which is checked.
Also in the bag
Polarized glasses to read the drop-offs, a small net, pliers.
A headlamp in the shoulder seasons — the walk back from the east shore in late October is in the dark before the gate shuts.
Your licence and photo ID.
What you don’t need
Chest waders. The shore is steep rock and the water level is not yours to predict.
A parking pass, if you are coming for the fish rather than the beach.
Month by month
When
What’s there
How it fishes
Sep — now
Last of the summer fish; trout scattered and deep
The lull before the truck. Kokanee and pikeminnow dominate the shallows. Worth a scouting walk to find your spot on the east shore; gate is at 7 pm, dropping to 6:30 from 28 Sep.
October
The fall stocking — about 2,700 catchable rainbows, due around the 23rd
The best month of the year here. Cool water, fish shallow and naive, park almost empty, no pass needed. Fish the first two weeks after the truck. Gate drops to 6 pm on the 12th.
Nov — Feb
Carryover rainbows and resident cutthroat
Legally open all year, and genuinely quiet. But the gate shuts at 4:30 pm from 3 Nov, so it is a midday trip. Slow, deep, patient fishing for one or two fish.
Mar — Apr
The spring stocking — two or three loads, 5,000–6,000 fish total
The heaviest fishing of the year, spread over six weeks rather than one date. Still no pass required. Gate stretches to 7:30 pm from 23 Mar and 8 pm from 13 Apr, so evenings open up.
May — Jun
Spring fish still on; a late load some years
Good fishing meeting a busy park. The pass season starts 14 May — book the night before, or come by bike or bus. Early mornings are the answer.
Jul — Aug
Trout deep; pikeminnow and kokanee
The weakest trout months and the busiest beach months. If you come, be on the water at first light with a full-day pass, and fish deep off the east shore or from a boat.
Before you go
Stocked lake planner — where the dates on this page come from, alongside every other stocked lake near Vancouver.
Fish stocking reports — what actually went in, and the page that settles any argument with the forecast above.