The Field Journal
Rivers & Lakes · Stocked Stillwater

Blackwater Creek

A stocked stillwater in the Kootenay–Columbia basin, surface area not recorded, carrying Rainbow Trout and Kokanee and topped up by the provincial stocking program.

Blackwater Creek is a stocked stillwater in the Kootenay–Columbia basin. Surface area not recorded.

The water

Blackwater Creek sits in the Kootenay–Columbia basin, covering surface area not recorded.

Stocking

For an angler judging whether the fishing is worth the drive, the stocking record is the fishing report. Blackwater Creek is a kokanee program, a mix of forage stocking and a put-and-take sport fishery: 9 recorded releases totalling 222,000 fish (Rainbow Trout, Kokanee), last stocked 1989-05-31.

Stocking record

Blackwater Creek — 219,500 fish stocked, 1984–1989

Rainbow Trout, Kokanee. Source: Province of BC — FIDQ / FISS Fish Releases via the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC.

YearRainbow TroutKokanee
19892,000·
19882,000·
19872,000·
19862,500·
19855,000194,500
198411,500·

Stocking appears to have wound down after 1989. 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

Blackwater Creek fishes as a put-grow stillwater: work chironomids under an indicator over the shoals in spring, then leech and attractor retrieves along the drop-offs as the shallows warm. The stocking record below is the truest read on the size and cohort of fish you will find.

waves
Stocked Stillwater
Kootenay–Columbia basin
egg
Stocked
kokanee program

Access & the rules

Confirm the launch, parking and any motor/float or seasonal restrictions for Blackwater Creek locally before you commit a day; the map shows where the lake sits in its drainage.

gavel

Before you fish

Confirm the current BC freshwater fishing regulations (Region 4 – Kootenay) before you go. Official synopsis: gov.bc.ca fishing regulations.