Clay Creek

Clay Creek is a tributary creek flowing into Tanglefoot Creek. Fish presence expected (barrier-free access to recorded habitat), not yet confirmed by direct records.

The water

It flows into Tanglefoot Creek within the Bull River watershed (Bull River → Kootenay River). It runs stream order 4 (mid-range in the network; the scale runs from 1 for a headwater trickle to 6+ for a river) and roughly 4 km. Westslope (Yellowstone) Cutthroat Trout expected: the fish-passage model shows this water connects to recorded habitat with no barrier between, though it has no direct records of its own yet.

The fishing

As a small stream, a tributary of Tanglefoot Creek, Clay Creek fishes the way creeks of its size do: short drifts with a buoyant attractor dry over a light dropper, working the pocket water and the heads of pools. Match the fly box to the season and confirm against a current local report.

Conditions

• Navigability: wade water: narrow channel, fish on foot (median channel width ~2.8 m, narrow; median gradient ~10.34%, very steep; peak mean-annual discharge ~0.136 m³/s, very low flow).

Access & the rules

Access for Clay Creek, meaning the roads in, put-ins and any walk-in or seasonal limits, is worth confirming locally before you commit a day. The drainage map shows how the water sits in its valley.