Kiakho Creek is a tributary creek flowing into Palmer Bar Creek. Recorded fish: Brook Trout, Rainbow Trout, Westslope (Yellowstone) Cutthroat Trout.
The water
It flows into Palmer Bar Creek within the Kootenay Lake watershed (Kootenay Lake → Kootenay River). It runs stream order 3 (mid-range in the network; the scale runs from 1 for a headwater trickle to 6+ for a river) and roughly 8 km. Brook Trout, Rainbow Trout, Westslope (Yellowstone) Cutthroat Trout, recorded here in provincial fish-inventory data (1 record). 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. Kiakho Creek is a put-and-take angling fishery, stocked with catchable game fish: 7 recorded releases totalling 342,315 fish (Westslope (Yellowstone) Cutthroat Trout), last stocked 1948-01-01.
Kiakho Creek — 342,315 fish stocked, 1929–1948
Cutthroat Trout. Source: Province of BC — FIDQ / FISS Fish Releases via the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC.
| Year | Cutthroat Trout |
|---|---|
| 1948 | 17,835 |
| 1947 | 20,480 |
| 1942 | 4,000 |
| 1932 | 85,000 |
| 1931 | 100,000 |
| 1930 | 100,000 |
| 1929 | 15,000 |
Stocking appears to have wound down after 1948. 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 Palmer Bar Creek, Kiakho 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 water: narrow channel, fish on foot (median channel width ~3.5 m, narrow; median gradient ~1.59%, gentle; peak mean-annual discharge ~0.075 m³/s, very low flow).
Access & the rules
Access for Kiakho 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.
