Big Creek, ON - Canada

article and pictures by Jules Jelev

Big Creek originates north of the small communities of Teeterville and Vanessa, in the farmlands near Brantford, ON. It flows south through Delhi and pours its waters into Lake Erie at Long Point. The creek is open to fishing year round below Lynedoch, and has an extended trout season between Lynedoch and Delhi. This is an interesting little creek, which flows in a deep channel like bed for most of its length and for the most part has a sandy bottom. The area directly below Delhi dam has a few good riffles attracting a lot of fishermen on the trout opening day. After the creek reaches Lynedoch, its valley opens up, but the banks become less accessible because of thick vegetation. Wading the creek is not an option; banks are high and the bottom is usually soft. Depth is also unpredictable. The creek can be accessed at many points along its course at the roads crossing it.

Steelhead in this creek exist in good numbers but are quite difficult to locate. The creek has its fans, some of which are so experienced they can land many steelhead on a good day. For the average angler, though, the creek is hard to read and its fish are notoriously difficult to catch. The main problems come with the many obstrucions both above and into the water and the sluggish, meandering currents. Losing 10 or more hooks on snags in a day is normal here. Lures can be used, but cannot be expected to last long. With the exception of a couple of small spots, flies would be totally impractical on this creek below Lynedoch. There are some good brown trout fishing spots above Delhi. In this upper sections different types of water can be found. Deadfall in the water and overhanging branches are still the norm. Besides steelhead and brown trout, Big creek has a few resident rainbows and other species like pike, carp, suckers, and yellow perch.

I spent many days fishing Big creek below Lynedoch since it was one of the two possible places for steelhead fishing near Brantford during the off season (Jan 1 till the last weekend in April).  Although I fished it hard and well, my results were rather spotty. The best 3 fish I had popped the hook a minute or two into the fight and I never got more than one steelhead take per day on average.

From those days I have two encounters that are well etched in my memory.  The first of them was with a young angler, whose name was Rob. Rob decided to fish literally the first hole he came across, after he had parked his car by the road.  While walking down towards him I noticed he had a fish on, that he had trouble landing.  I never carry a net, except when I go to Big Creek, so Rob was in luck.

The fish he had was a hen steelhead of maybe 10Lb.  After I netted it, I also took a couple of shots with my camera that I e-mailed Rob the same evening.  He mentioned that this was the first time he fished Big creek and that the steelhead came on the first cast.

The second day I vividly remember was a snowy day in March.  I was walking downstream from the bridge in Lynedoch and fishing without any bites.  After a while I started wondering if there were any steelhead around at all.  Just then I saw a silvery object flopping close to shore under some branches.  It was a great looking male steelhead of about 8lb, that was fastened to a stringer and secured in the water.  So there was somebody fishing in front of me.

At the next hole I came across the angler just as he was skillfully fighting another nice steelhead.  The fish jumped over the water and pulled hard towards the log jams, but apparently the angler knew very well what he was doing.  I learned that this was his 8th steelhead for the day.  If I had enough self respect I could have packed and left the creek right then, but I spent the next 3-4 hours walking, fishing and stalking imaginary fish that were not there to end the day with a big skunk.  But I am fond of these memories.

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