[BPman]

Just returned Saturday night from 5 days fishing Cascade Lake so I will share some useful info and impressions for those contemplating a trip. The worst roads on the whole 1150 km drive is Hwy #3 through BC. Even with the 65 MPH speed limit in ID it is a solid 14 hour drive from Calgary. We stayed at the Birch Glen Lodge in Cascade so had to drive the 15 miles to Donnelly to get to Poison Creek and the Mountain Meadows Adventure outfitter who rented us a side by side quad and sled to get around on the lake. Nobody drives trucks on the lake even though there was 14" of ice: half of it was frozen slush. We found only a couple of access points where you can walk on in less than half a mile: the Cascade town boat ramp and Poison Creek Park. You should plan on using motor transport to get around. The lake is about 15 miles long and about a mile wide most places.
Tackle Tom's shop in Cascade has all kinds of tackle and live bait - we used only worms and they are available at every gas station anyway. TT also has GPS referenced bathymetric map of the lake for sale...you will need one. He is free with advice on what is happening and what has been working.... a really nice fellow.
Birch Glen Lodge is warm, dry, clean and quiet. Also has a heated room set up for cleaning fish so perfect also for socializing with other anglers.
Fishing success had been poor the week before we arrived and was slow last week..unusual for this time of the winter, apparently. Most years the perch feed on minnows but minnows are scarce this winter so the perch are focussed on grubbing chironomid worms out of the mud bottom and will spit up balls of the tiny red worms when brought out onto the ice. This made them difficult to catch and there were more anglers skunked every day than were successful
We scouted the locale Monday, Caught 9 but released 2 smaller ones Tuesday, were essentially skunked Wednesday and Thursday (but for a few 6" perch) then had our best day Friday when we hooked 15, landed 8 perch and released a trout. The good news was we both caught personal bests perch: mine was 16" and 2 lb 2 oz while my partner's was 15" and 1 lb 14 oz. We also landed several over 14". We caught only one perch in 4 days on a jaw jacker with worm/wire worm even though I tried several different worm/lure combos. All but that one were taken jigging copper or silver Wetaskiwin spoons with a piece of worm to sweeten them up. Nobody we met had ever seen a Wetaskiwin spoon. Ho Ho! The hot depth was 25 - 27' over a mud bottom. Having a sonar is a real asset so you know whether fish are around even though you may not be getting bites.
Cascade is at 4850' above sea level so real winter with a fair amount of snow except on the lake where there was only a couple inches so easy walking or quadding. Temperatures were about -14C at night and -5C daytime except Friday when it got up to about +3C. It rained Friday night and was raining when we departed Saturday morning.
Everyone we met was helpful and friendly so we are already planning a return tip: it is a beautiful area, was just too much fun and the perch taste great!
I hope this info will be useful.