Askbud Home Animals Lakes & Rivers Island Shores Plants Tourism
Great Central Lake
Last Next Return To Island Lakes
Great Central Lake is a popular recreation lake that has some awesome fishing.
The lake has fair numbers of Rainbow Trout that average around 1 kg and Dolly Varden Trout that can reach 3 kg in weight. There are Kokanee available also. The best method of fishing is by troll as the lake is very deep.
Great Central Lake is located on Vancouver Island. Great Central Lake is approximately 41 km long and has an area of approximately 30 square km, providing plenty of places for the fishermen to fish and boaters to explore.
The lake itself was carved by the last ice age.
First nations peoples were the first to explore the Great Central Lake area as evidenced by a petroglyph long since underwater, which is rumored to be an arrow design. This petroglyph islocated at the western end of the lake much of which now is inside the southern boundary of Strathcona Park.
The lake water level was raised in the 1950's as part of a project to provide a water supply for both fish hatcheries and hydroelectric generation. Prior to the lake being raised it was the site of a large logging and milling operation which ran several railroad logging camps as well as a floating A Frame camp that used a massive float built of huge logs powered by a wood fired stem donkey, to yard logs down to the lake. The lake shore itself was mostly steep and inaccessible and even more so now due to the water levels fluctuating because of the damlocated on the Stamp River. The river system itself is home to World Class Steelhead fishing. The steep unfriendly shoreline of the lake made it necessary to build housing on floats and since the late 1800's there have been many floating homes on Great Central Lake.
The man who discovered Della Lake and Della Falls, Joe Drinkwater owned one of the early float homes on Great Central Lake. Popular opinion at the time was that Vancouver Island could not be traversed through Bedwell Sound, so to settle a bet Joe hiked overland and made his way west to east along Great Central Lake and back to Port Alberni. He named the alpine lake and its outflow waterfalls after his wife, Della. These spectacular falls plunge 1440 feet from Della Lake to the Valley below in a noisy cascade. Della Falls can only be reached by hiking inland 11 miles from the western end of Great Central Lake. The Della Falls Trail start is boat access from the western end of Great Central Lake or from Scout Beach Ministry Of Forests camp site.Last Next Return To Island Lakes
