Redfish Creek is a small West Kootenay stream that drains into Kootenay Lake near Nelson. Provincial fisheries records group it with two other lake tributaries, Crawford Creek and Kokanee Creek, and like both of those creeks its clearest signal is a stocking ledger rather than a fishing report: 27 releases logged between 1929 and 1982, almost all of them kokanee.
The water
The creek's mouth sits at 49.612017, -117.057141, the coordinate the province uses for its own release records here. It runs stream order 3 (high in the network, close to the headwaters, on a 1-to-6+ scale where 1 is a headwater trickle and 6+ a full river), with a median channel width around 6.7 m, narrow, and a steep median gradient near 13.8%. Peak mean-annual discharge sits around 0.72 m³/s, very low flow, all consistent with a small, steep tributary rather than a river-scale drainage. No independent fish survey beyond the stocking ledger has turned up for this creek.
The fishing
Redfish Creek reads as kokanee spawning-and-recovery infrastructure, not a destination fishery. Of the 27 releases on record, 25 were Kokanee, nearly 1.71 million fish in eyed-egg and fry life stages, sourced from wild spawners at Meadow Creek, Kootenay Lake itself, Kokanee Creek and the creek's own run. The last and largest release, 104,290 kokanee eyed eggs in June 1982, closes out more than five decades of enhancement work with no releases since. Rainbow trout appear only twice, in 1950 and 1951, small eyed-egg and fingerling plants on the Gerrard Creek and Beaver strains totalling under 20,000 fish, a minor, incidental side note rather than a put-grow program. No guide, shop or trip report references Redfish Creek, and no rod-and-reel access point has been confirmed.
Not a keep-fish creek
Access and the rules
No named launch, trailhead, road or parking area has been confirmed for Redfish Creek, and nothing in the guide or shop record places a trip here. Until that gap is filled, use the coordinate above to locate the creek on a map and treat it as a regulation-and-access check rather than a planned outing.
Before you fish
Stocking
The Province of BC, via the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC, has logged 27 releases into Redfish Creek between 1929 and 1982, roughly 1.73 million fish in total: about 1.71 million kokanee and 18,333 rainbow trout. Every release was recorded as wild-origin broodstock, mostly planted as eyed eggs or fry rather than catchable fish, drawing on Meadow Creek, Kootenay Lake, Kokanee Creek, Gerrard Creek and Beaver strains, plus two releases sourced from the creek's own wild run. No release has been logged since 1982.
Redfish Creek — 1,727,809 fish stocked, 1929–1982
Rainbow Trout, Kokanee. Source: Province of BC — FIDQ / FISS Fish Releases via the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC.
| Year | Rainbow Trout | Kokanee |
|---|---|---|
| 1982 | · | 104,290 |
| 1981 | · | 177,275 |
| 1952 | · | 20,000 |
| 1951 | 8,733 | 20,000 |
| 1950 | 9,600 | 50,000 |
| 1949 | · | 237,810 |
| 1948 | · | 100,000 |
| 1947 | · | 20,000 |
| 1946 | · | 30,000 |
| 1944 | · | 50,000 |
| 1943 | · | 50,000 |
| 1942 | · | 50,000 |
| 1941 | · | 50,000 |
| 1940 | · | 25,000 |
| 1939 | · | 25,000 |
| 1938 | · | 70,000 |
| 1937 | · | 160,000 |
| 1936 | · | 100,000 |
| 1935 | · | 55,000 |
| 1934 | · | 50,000 |
| 1932 | · | 50,000 |
| 1931 | · | 100,101 |
| 1930 | · | 75,000 |
| 1929 | · | 40,000 |
Conditions
- Navigability: small, steep tributary water throughout (median channel width ~6.7 m, narrow; median gradient ~13.82%, steep; peak mean-annual discharge ~0.719 m³/s, very low flow). Nothing here suggests anything but a wade-and-walk creek.
- Stocking: historical only. Last recorded release 1982; no confirmed current put-grow program.
