Stoddart Creek drains into the Columbia River north of Invermere, a small watershed built around one thing: a hanging culvert on Highway 93/95 that blocks upstream fish passage and, in doing so, protects a pure-strain Westslope Cutthroat Trout population in the water above it.
The water
The creek drains a 25 km² watershed about 5 km north of Invermere, with headwaters in Kimpton Pass. More than half the watershed lies inside Kootenay National Park. The 2002 BC fish-habitat inventory describes an 11 km, fifth-order mainstem (stream order 5, well down the network toward river scale, on a system that runs from 1 for a headwater trickle up to 6 or more for a full river) flowing west to the Columbia River downstream of Windermere Lake. Below the park boundary the lower creek crosses residential and agricultural land, including Shuswap Band reserve land, with limited public access.
The fishing
Local beat data holds two direct fish records here, both Westslope Cutthroat Trout. The broader CHARS restoration survey adds rainbow trout and juvenile Bull Trout in the lower creek, below the Highway 93/95 hanging culvert, and the 2002 fish-habitat inventory notes historical brook trout in the lower stream. This is conservation and recovery water first. Where a legal, open reach outside the park is accessible, fish small dries or a light dry-dropper and stay off restoration structures, crossings and clean spawning gravel.
For open water below the barrier, carry the conservative small-stream box: a Stimulator, Royal Wulff or Adams for Mayflies and summer Terrestrials (Hoppers, Ants, Beetles), an Elk Hair Caddis for Caddisflies (Sedges), and a Hare's Ear, Prince or Pheasant Tail for small Stoneflies. In the lower Columbia-connected water, a small olive or black Woolly Bugger covers sculpins and other Baitfish & Fry.
A barrier that protects the recovery water
Access and the rules
Public access is limited and no named trailhead or put-in is confirmed. The Highway 93/95 crossing, home to the hanging culvert, is the one reliable landmark on the creek, with the lower reach running through residential, agricultural and reserve land on the way to the Columbia. Kootenay Troutfitters operates nearby in the Columbia Valley, but no source confirms dedicated Stoddart Creek trips.
Before you fish
Conditions
- Navigability: the channel-geometry numbers (median width ~4.5 m, narrow; gradient ~6.42%, steep; peak mean-annual discharge ~0.153 m³/s, very low flow) fit a small, technical headwater creek rather than a float or open-water fishery.
- Stocking: no stocking record. Stoddart runs entirely on wild, self-sustaining fish, which is the point of the restoration work above the culvert.
