Hill Creek is a small tributary draining toward Upper Arrow Lake and the Columbia River system west of Nakusp. Provincial hatchery data records 109 releases here between 1939 and 1999, nearly all of it Kokanee, which reads less like a put-and-take trout creek and more like one of the region's working kokanee source creeks: its own broodstock code, "HILL CRK", turns up in the stocking records of Meadow Creek, Crawford Creek and the Goat River, all fed at least partly from Hill Creek stock.
The water
The coordinate this page uses, 50.6732, -117.8423, is the FFSBC/FIDQ release point tied to the stocking record, not a confirmed mouth or named reach, so treat it as a starting pin rather than a precise location. The record's own waterbody identifier flags it as an Upper Arrow Lake tributary, so its water eventually reaches Upper Arrow Lake and the Columbia River, though the exact reach and mouth have not been confirmed for this page. Channel data puts it at stream order 4 (mid-range on a 1-to-6+ scale where 1 is a headwater trickle and 6+ a river), with a median width around 7.2 m (narrow to moderate), a median gradient around 5.12% (steep), and a peak mean-annual discharge around 1.019 m³/s (low flow), a small, technical creek rather than driftable water.
The fishing
No fish-inventory survey, guide coverage or fishing report has surfaced for Hill Creek beyond the stocking log, so there is nothing here to confirm as a modern angling destination. What the record does show is a heavy, sustained kokanee program: eyed eggs and fry moved in and out of this creek for six decades, mostly under Meadow Creek and Gerrard broodstock early on, later under the creek's own "HILL CRK" strain code. That pattern, dominated by egg and fry life stages rather than catchable fish, reads as spawning-channel and hatchery-support infrastructure feeding the wider Kootenay Lake and Columbia kokanee fishery, not a stocked trout creek in its own right.
Read the chart as the record
Access and the rules
No access route, launch or trailhead is confirmed for Hill Creek. Anyone scouting this Upper Arrow Lake kokanee record in person should start from the release-point coordinate above and work outward; nothing more specific has surfaced. Upper Arrow Lake and the wider Columbia River system are the eventual receiving waters downstream.
Before you fish
Stocking
For an angler judging whether this creek is worth a look, the release history below is effectively the whole fishing report. Provincial FIDQ/FFSBC data records 109 releases totalling 8,384,564 fish between 1939 and 1999: kokanee eyed eggs, fry and unmarked plants (7,837,437 fish, drawing on Meadow Creek, Kikomun Creek and Norbury Creek stock along with the creek's own broodstock), rainbow trout eyed eggs, fry and yearlings (457,605 fish, largely Gerrard and Hill Creek strain), bull trout (87,055 fish), and a smaller dolly varden component (2,467 fish). The single largest plant was 2,000,000 kokanee in 1981; the last recorded release was 1,185 rainbow trout yearlings on 1999-10-28.
Hill Creek — 8,369,333 fish stocked, 1939–1999
Rainbow Trout, Kokanee, Bull Trout. Source: Province of BC — FIDQ / FISS Fish Releases via the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC.
| Year | Rainbow Trout | Kokanee | Bull Trout |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 1,185 | 357,784 | 4,568 |
| 1998 | 3,424 | 172,745 | 6,684 |
| 1997 | 6,634 | 245,061 | 392 |
| 1996 | 7,235 | 435,571 | 1,140 |
| 1995 | 15,377 | 167,086 | 2,467 |
| 1994 | 10,168 | 123,695 | 7,544 |
| 1993 | 10,192 | 501,131 | 11,541 |
| 1992 | 28,290 | · | 13,998 |
| 1991 | 27,041 | · | 19,913 |
| 1990 | 27,695 | · | 11,822 |
| 1989 | 24,464 | · | 1,029 |
| 1988 | 28,374 | · | 8,424 |
| 1987 | 45,429 | · | · |
| 1986 | 26,863 | 173,964 | · |
| 1985 | 43,865 | 175,000 | · |
| 1984 | 15,000 | · | · |
| 1983 | 3,116 | · | · |
| 1982 | 3,000 | 1,812,600 | · |
| 1981 | 2,500 | 2,113,300 | · |
| 1980 | 1,500 | 250,000 | · |
| 1979 | 5,000 | · | · |
| 1978 | 1,560 | 1,309,500 | · |
| 1952 | 15,000 | · | · |
| 1950 | 15,000 | · | · |
| 1949 | 15,000 | · | · |
| 1946 | 9,712 | · | · |
| 1945 | 10,000 | · | · |
| 1944 | 10,000 | · | · |
| 1943 | 9,750 | · | · |
| 1942 | 10,000 | · | · |
| 1939 | 10,000 | · | · |
Conditions
- Navigability: wade and technical, steep gradient (median channel width ~7.2 m, narrow to moderate; median gradient ~5.12%, steep; peak mean-annual discharge ~1.019 m³/s, low flow), consistent with a small tributary rather than driftable water.
- Stocking: a heavy, decades-long kokanee program (7.8 million of the 8.4 million fish planted), active 1939 to 1999 and dormant since; read the chart above as the closest thing to a fishing report this creek has.
- Identity: the geo point is the FIDQ release-point coordinate rather than a surveyed reach or mouth, so the exact stream location, access and current species mix are unconfirmed.
