The Field Journal
Rivers & Lakes · Tributary Creek

Meadow Creek

A stocked creek in the Kootenay Lake watershed, a tributary of Boundary Creek, carrying Westslope Cutthroat, Rainbow and Cutthroat and topped up by the provincial stocking program.

Meadow Creek is a tributary creek flowing into Boundary Creek. Fish presence expected but not yet confirmed by direct records.

The water

It flows into Boundary Creek within the Kootenay Lake watershed (Kootenay Lake → Kootenay River). It runs stream order 3 (mid-range in the network; the scale runs from 1 for a headwater trickle to 6+ for a river). Westslope Cutthroat Trout, Rainbow Trout, cutthroat, dolly varden, Kokanee, Brook Trout expected, since this water connects to recorded fish habitat with no barrier between, though it has no direct records of its own yet.

Stocking

For an angler judging whether the fishing is worth the drive, the stocking record is the fishing report. Meadow Creek is a kokanee program, a mix of forage stocking and a put-and-take sport fishery: 105 recorded releases totalling 33,026,930 fish (Kokanee, Rainbow Trout), last stocked 2024-10-21.

Stocking record

Meadow Creek — 33,012,611 fish stocked, 1975–2024

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

YearRainbow TroutKokanee
2024·1,657,172
2023·2,531,565
2022·1,491,219
2021·1,115,871
2020·344,489
2019·2,531,323
2018·4,350,196
2017·8,551,893
2016·7,365,152
2015·477,398
1989·418,646
1988·84,357
1987·747,090
1986·500,000
198455,000·
198319,000567,905
198210,000·
19817,250·
198012,450·
197912,860·
197825,500·
197749,400·
197676,875·
197510,000·

It is still stocked (most recent release 2024-10-21), so it fishes as a put-grow water: this season's fish come from the latest cohorts, topped up to keep it going. The chart below shows the release history by year and species.

The fishing

As a small stream, a tributary of Boundary Creek, Meadow Creek fishes the way creeks of its size do: short drifts with a buoyant attractor dry over a light dropper, working the pocket water and the heads of pools. The stocking record below is the truest read on what you will catch.

water_drop
Tributary Creek
Kootenay Lake watershed
straighten
Stream order 3
set_meal
Fish expected
no direct records yet
egg
Stocked
kokanee program

Conditions

  • Navigability: wade / technical: steep gradient, pocket water (median channel width ~7.1 m, moderate width; median gradient ~8.21%, very steep; peak mean-annual discharge ~3.509 m³/s, low flow).

Access & the rules

Access for Meadow Creek, meaning the roads in, put-ins and any walk-in or seasonal limits, is worth confirming locally before you commit a day. The drainage map shows how the water sits in its valley.

gavel

Before you fish

Confirm the current BC freshwater fishing regulations (Region 4 – Kootenay) before you go This water is part of the Boundary Creek system.. Official synopsis: gov.bc.ca fishing regulations.