Redding Creek is the largest and most productive tributary in the upper St. Mary River system, and one of three creeks the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC names as a primary upper-St. Mary Bull Trout spawning stream. It carries the strongest cutthroat and char signal of any water in its branch, which is exactly why it deserves careful, regulation-first fishing rather than a hard push for numbers.
The water
Redding Creek is an official Kootenay Land District name recorded by Natural Resources Canada at 49.631667, -116.316389, draining the Purcell Mountains east of St. Mary Lake into the St. Mary River. Across 178 mapped channel segments it runs stream order 5 (well down the network toward river scale, on a scale that runs from 1 for a headwater trickle up to 6 or more for a full river), with a median channel width near 20.7 m (wide), a median gradient around 1.35% (gentle) and a peak mean-annual discharge close to 6.5 m³/s (moderate flow). Provincial fish-inventory data lists 126 direct observations on the creek: 52 Westslope Cutthroat Trout, 46 Bull Trout, 9 Dolly Varden, 6 Mountain Whitefish, 5 Kokanee, 2 Brook Trout, 2 Burbot, 2 unspecified cutthroat, 1 Rainbow Trout and 1 trout fry, the strongest westslope cutthroat and bull trout signal of any upper St. Mary tributary in its branch.
The fishing
Redding's defining fact is its spawning value. The Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC's 2023-2024 rivers program names Redding, Dewar and White creeks as the known primary bull trout spawning tributaries of the upper St. Mary, and staff ran an enumeration fence and trap on Redding from early September to mid-October 2023, counting about 110 post-spawn bull trout working back down toward the St. Mary. That window, and the redds themselves, are worth staying well clear of rather than treating as a fishing calendar.
A 1999 habitat assessment of Tributary 780 to Redding Creek called the drainage a regionally significant recreational fishery and a high-priority restoration watershed for both westslope cutthroat and bull trout, and documented logging, windthrow and channel avulsion in that side tributary alongside restoration work meant to rebuild fish habitat and reduce channel instability. That history is part of why the creek still gets careful handling today.
No creek-specific hatch survey has been recorded for Redding, so anglers work from the same St. Mary and East Kootenay hatch spine: Stoneflies near the opener, Mayflies, Caddisflies (Sedges), midges, summer Terrestrials (Hoppers, Ants, Beetles), sculpin and fry, and kokanee or kokanee fry where the creek connects toward St. Mary Lake. Where legal and well away from redds, a Stimulator, Chubby Chernobyl, Royal Wulff, Adams or PMX covers the dry-fly water, an Elk Hair Caddis backs up the caddis hatch, and a Hare's Ear, Pheasant Tail, Prince, Copper John or Pat's Rubber Legs covers the subsurface. A sparse Woolly Bugger or Muddler Minnow only makes sense away from spawning fish and with bull trout handling in mind.
Bull trout spawning water: fish it with care
Conditions
- Navigability: the channel-geometry numbers (median width ~20.7 m, wide; gradient ~1.35%, gentle; peak mean-annual discharge ~6.5 m³/s, moderate flow) read close to driftable water, but Redding is a tributary stream fished on foot, not floated.
- Stocking: no stocking record. Redding runs entirely on wild fish.
Access and the rules
Redding Creek Road runs off St. Mary Lake Road and links to the Grey Creek Pass route, a high, unpaved Purcell pass that Tourism Kimberley describes as generally passable July through October and best suited to experienced, high-clearance 4WD drivers. That is travel context for the road corridor, not a statement of legal fishing access to any particular reach, and no public access points, put-ins or trailheads specific to Redding Creek have been confirmed.
No guide publishes Redding Creek-specific trips or reports. St. Mary Angler, Elk River Guiding Company and Kimberley Fly Fishing all guide the St. Mary River mainstem and can speak to regional seasonal conditions, but that coverage is not an endorsement to fish this tributary.
