Hamling Creek is a tributary creek flowing into Fitzstubbs Creek. Recorded fish: Brook Trout, Burbot, Dolly Varden, Kokanee, Lake Whitefish, Mountain Whitefish, Rainbow Trout, Westslope (Yellowstone) Cutthroat Trout, White Sturgeon.
The water
It flows into Fitzstubbs Creek within the Slocan River watershed (Slocan 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 10 km. Brook Trout, Burbot, Dolly Varden, Kokanee, Lake Whitefish, Mountain Whitefish, Rainbow Trout, Westslope (Yellowstone) Cutthroat Trout, White Sturgeon, recorded here in provincial fish-inventory data (33 records). The fish-passage model expects Bull Trout here too, since the reach is reachable with no barrier between, though there is no direct record yet.
Stocking
For an angler judging whether the fishing is worth the drive, the stocking record is the fishing report. Hamling Creek is a put-and-take angling fishery, stocked with catchable game fish: 14 recorded releases totalling 14,000 fish (Rainbow Trout), last stocked 2011-10-18.
Stocking appears to have wound down after 2011. Confirm whether it is still topped up or now fishes as a residual, wild population. The chart below shows the full release history.
The fishing
As a small stream, a tributary of Fitzstubbs Creek, Hamling 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. The stocking record below is the truest read on what you will catch.
Conditions
- Navigability: wade / technical: steep gradient, pocket water (median channel width ~5.8 m, moderate width; median gradient ~10.43%, very steep; peak mean-annual discharge ~0.856 m³/s, very low flow).
Access & the rules
Access for Hamling 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.
