McDonell Lake – Smithers B.C. I will have to chat with more old timers about the history as I cannot seem to find any online. As best as I can recall this was originally a public forestry campsite, then someone wanted it. I do recall years back, as even my memory is fading, that it was originally purposed as a bible camp, it was the justification used to get a lease on the land from the Goverment of British Columbia. When the people running the camp got old and or lost interest in the project, the land somehow became their property, that was later sold to a local retired dentist, turn rancher. It blows me away that this property is private property and excludes the public from launching boats and or accessing the lake. If anyone knows the accurate history of this lake please inbox me on our contact page. See the video below for the sheer size of this private land and lake frontage. If anyone has the facts, please share them with us so we can share it with the public.
Either way it remains inexcusable that this gorgeous lake is being exploited by private land owners, on one of the richest fishing lands in the northwest. All species of salmon and Steelhead pass though this lake, and the numbers are somewhere between dangerously low and extinct, because of a lack of care by the DFO and the Ministry of Environment.
Facilities:
- Warf: No
- Boat Launch: No
- RV Friendly: No
- Tables: No
- Toilets: No
- Fees: No
- Campsites: none
- Privately owned
- Google Earth KML McDonnell Lake (note unzip first)
Fish Species: Last Biophysical Inventory/Assessment was done in 1996, that’s 26 years ago, seriously? The fish found were Prickly Sculpin, Coho Salmon, Longnose Sucker, Peamouth Chub, Cutthroat Trout, Dolly Varden, Sockeye Salmon, Pink Salmon, Coho Salmon, Steelhead and Rainbow Trout. In 1968 they also recorded Cutthroat Trout.
Below are Bathymetric Maps:
McDonellDirections: Follow Hudson Bay Mountain Road from town, turn off to McDonnell Forest Service Road. McDonnell Lake is located about 35 km along this road, on the left (south) side of the road.
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