Johnston Creek feeds Lake Windermere on the upper Columbia system in the Columbia Valley. Natural Resources Canada lists it as an official Kootenay Land District creek, one of several BC waters carrying the Johnston Creek name, so this page covers the Lake Windermere water specifically. Local records here turn up two direct redside shiner observations and nothing else, which reads as lake-edge forage and habitat signal rather than a proven trout creek.
The water
The creek's mapped mouth sits at 50.43250, -115.97194. BC water-quality material on Windermere Lake lists Johnston among the lake's main tributary watersheds, so its lower reach belongs in the broader lake-edge habitat picture even without a dedicated trout-stream record. No channel-geometry survey (width, gradient, discharge) has been logged for Johnston Creek itself, and no stream-order or length figure is on record, so treat it as a small, unmeasured lake feeder until that data turns up.
The fishing
Local beat data holds two direct redside shiner records at Johnston Creek and no direct trout observations, which is a thin signal against Windermere's wider fish assemblage of trout, char, Kokanee and whitefish alongside sculpins, suckers, bass, dace, pikeminnow, peamouth and redside shiner. That puts Johnston in the same category as nearby Holland Creek: forage and scout water first, not a destination fishery, until access, flow and fish presence are confirmed on the ground.
If a legal, cool-water reach turns up, keep patterns small and forage-matching for the shiner-dominated food base: tiny soft hackles, Hare's Ear, Pheasant Tail, Elk Hair Caddis, a small Adams and micro fry patterns fished away from any spawning fish. The lake-edge food base here likely runs redside shiner, other Baitfish & Fry, chironomids, small Mayflies, Caddisflies (Sedges), midges, Damselflies and summer Terrestrials (Hoppers, Ants, Beetles).
A low-confidence fishery
Conditions & stocking
- Navigability: no bcfishpass channel-geometry record exists for Johnston Creek itself. The redside-shiner-only record and lake-edge setting point to a small, low-volume feeder rather than a substantial trout stream.
- Stocking: no FFSBC stocking record. Any fish present are wild and lake-connected.
Access and the rules
Public access, land tenure and a reliable parking or trailhead point along Johnston Creek are unconfirmed. Kootenay Troutfitters is the nearest Columbia Valley guide contact, but no source confirms guiding specific to Johnston Creek.
