Midge Creek is closed to fishing, all year. It flows into the west side of the south arm of Kootenay Lake, and it matters far more as a bull trout nursery than as a piece of angling water.
Closed water
Why it is closed
Midge Creek is one of five index bull trout spawning tributaries monitored on Kootenay Lake, alongside Meadow Creek, the Kaslo/Keen system, Crawford Creek and Coffee Creek. Redd surveys recorded roughly 400 redds in the Midge drainage in 2011, falling to 131 in 2013: 77 in the mainstem, 27 in Seeman Creek, 13 in Conway Creek, 12 in Württemberg Creek and 2 in Kutetl Creek.
The decline did not stop there. A provincial Kootenay Lake recovery update in February 2024 reported the lake's southern bull trout stocks, Coffee, Crawford and Midge, at all-time lows, a roughly 95% reduction since 2011, and recommended reducing harvest pressure on the weaker South Arm stocks. The 2023 index count across all five monitored systems totalled 244 redds.
For context on how far that has fallen: this is a steeper decline than the Salmo River bull trout population, which is itself a documented conservation concern.
The water
Midge Creek runs about 31 km (stream order 6) off the Purcell front into the roadless west shore of Kootenay Lake's south arm, roughly 35 km northwest of Creston. It is cascade-pool water on a 4.28% median gradient through boulder and cobble, with canyon-confined sections carrying walls around 147 m (DEM-derived), and a median channel width near 18 m. Provincial inventory data records Bull Trout, dolly varden, Kokanee, Mountain Whitefish and Rainbow Trout here across 39 records.
Its named tributaries (Seeman Creek, Conway Creek, Kutetl Creek and Hughes Creek) carry spawning redds of their own and should be treated with the same care.
Access
There is no road. The creek mouth sits on the roadless west shore of the south arm, and the Midge Creek site of Kootenay Lake Provincial Park is reached by water only; the 2013 survey crew was inserted by helicopter and recovered by boat. The Midge Creek Wildlife Management Area covers the drainage, established in part for grizzly bear, black bear and cougar habitat, with bull trout spawning and rearing named among its fisheries values. An active rail line runs the west shore and is neither a legal nor a safe approach.
