McQuarrie Creek is a small tributary high in the upper Fording River drainage, within the Elk River watershed of the East Kootenay, flowing into Henretta Creek. Provincial survey data confirms a narrow but real direct Westslope Cutthroat Trout signal, but the creek sits above Josephine Falls in water the Region 4 synopsis lists as closed, so it belongs in the conservation and regulation-check file before it belongs in an angling plan.
The water
McQuarrie carries an official name in the Kootenay Land District, recorded by Natural Resources Canada at 50.238056, -114.833333. It joins Henretta Creek, which in turn joins the Fording River, high in the valley well above Josephine Falls, inside the same mining-affected drainage that has drawn selenium and calcite monitoring from Environment and Climate Change Canada and the Elk Valley Water Quality Plan after waste rock from Fording River Operations and Greenhills Operations leached into the upper Fording system. Glencore/EVR's own upper-Fording monitoring reported roughly 6,800 adult and 17,000 juvenile westslope cutthroat trout across the drainage in 2024, a positive population trend the company frames as recovery context, not an invitation to fish closed water.
The fishing
A provincial fish survey recorded three direct westslope cutthroat trout observations on McQuarrie Creek itself, the narrowest child-creek signal of the three upper-Fording side creeks surveyed here, behind Henretta Creek (68) and Ewin Creek (11). No other species turned up on the direct McQuarrie record, so treat this as a presence-only signal rather than evidence of a real fishery. No creek-specific guide coverage exists: Elk River Guiding Company publishes the Fording River mainstem downstream, not this child creek.
Closed water: confirm before you go
Access and the rules
No public trailhead, road or put-in has been confirmed for McQuarrie Creek. It likely sits off industrial forestry roads tied to Fording River coal operations, similar to its upper-valley neighbours Henretta Creek and Ewin Creek, but road status and any seasonal restrictions are unconfirmed. Until both the closure boundary and physical access are confirmed, treat McQuarrie as a regulation-and-access check rather than a place to plan a day around.
Conditions
- Navigability: no channel-geometry survey has been published for McQuarrie Creek. Expect a narrow, small headwater tributary typical of the upper-Fording side creeks until a survey says otherwise.
- Stocking: no stocking record. It runs entirely on wild fish.
