Fly Fishing Hazard Creek, Idaho: Pocket Water and Wild Trout

A Little Salmon Tributary Off U.S. 95

Hazard Creek enters the Little Salmon River from the east, right beside U.S. Highway 95. Fish and Game maps it at 16.2 miles, all in Idaho County. The mouth sits at milepost 176.5, about 16 miles north of New Meadows and 18 miles south of Riggins.

The creek heads in the Hazard Lakes country of the Payette National Forest, where the Forest Service campground sits at 7,050 feet. From there it drops to the Little Salmon canyon. Along the way it passes Hazard Falls, and Hyatt Creek adds a falls of its own.

This is steep water. American Whitewater lists the lower creek as a kayak run, and the Little Salmon beside it as high-gradient roadside whitewater with four waterfalls. Expect pocket water, not meadow bends.

For more small waters in this state, see our Idaho secret waters guide.

Regulations (Checked September 2026)

Hazard Creek is not named in Idaho’s 2025 to 2027 rule book. Fish and Game’s Fishing Planner page says “No Special Rules for Hazard Creek” and files the water under the Southwest Region, so the Southwest Region general rules apply.

That six-trout limit is looser than the neighboring Rapid River, where the rule book sets a trout limit of two on the river and all its tributaries. Do not carry Rapid River’s rule up Hazard Creek, and do not carry Hazard Creek’s limit down to Rapid River.

The steelhead line matters here. Idaho defines a steelhead as any rainbow over 20 inches in the Salmon River drainage, and fishing for steelhead is prohibited unless a season is specifically opened for that water. No season opens on Hazard Creek.

The Little Salmon at the mouth is a different story. Its steelhead section runs from the mouth upstream to the U.S. 95 bridge near Smokey Boulder Road, about four and a half miles south of Hazard Creek. Seasons run January 1 to May 15 and September 1 to December 31, three fish a day and 20 a season.

Fish and Game also opens a spring Chinook season on the lower Little Salmon most years. That section ends well downstream of Hazard Creek, and tributaries stay closed to salmon fishing.

The Southwest Region’s McCall office answers at (208) 634-8137.

The Fish: Wild Now, Hatchery Then

Fish and Game’s 2026 survey of Hazard Creek recorded brook trout, westslope cutthroat, steelhead, Chinook salmon, salmonid fry, sculpin, and longnose dace. Bull trout showed up in 2023, a rainbow-cutthroat hybrid in 2022, mountain whitefish in 2011, and a bull trout-brook trout hybrid in 2010.

When a survey says “steelhead,” it means rainbow trout of the sea-going strain. In a creek this size, the steelhead and Chinook on that list are young fish rearing before they leave for the ocean. Most small rainbows you catch are future steelhead, so handle them that way.

That list is narrower than the old advice about this creek, and Fish and Game does not record redband trout here. Plan on cutthroat, small rainbows, and brook trout, with a bull trout in the deeper pools as a possibility, not a target.

Brook trout are not native here. Their limit is 25, listed separately from trout, and the 2010 survey logged a bull trout-brook trout hybrid.

The stocking record is worth knowing: Fish and Game planted 1,280 catchable rainbows in July 1969 and 820 more in August 1971. Then, from 1996 to 2009, it used the creek as a release site for hatchery steelhead smolts: 381,781 in 1996, 538,095 in 1999, and 42,000 to 95,000 in most years between.

The last plant was 51,797 smolts on April 3, 2009. Nothing has been stocked since, and seventeen years on, the trout you catch are creek-born fish.

The Little Salmon Next Door

The main river at the mouth is a hatchery-driven fishery. Fish and Game releases about 865,000 hatchery steelhead smolts into the Little Salmon every year, 872,998 of them in 2026.

Rapid River Hatchery, built by Idaho Power in 1964 and run by the department, rears about 3 million spring Chinook smolts a year. Most go into Rapid River and some into the Little Salmon. Adult Chinook arrive from May into September, and returns since 1964 have ranged from under 200 fish to more than 17,000.

Over one four-day stretch of the 2024 season, Fish and Game counted 1,818 angler-hours on the Little Salmon for 86 hatchery adults and five jacks kept, about 20 hours per fish.

None of that is Hazard Creek fishing, but it explains the fry, the Chinook, and the steelhead in the creek’s survey list, and why the little rainbows deserve a gentle release.

Flows and Heat

No gauge has ever recorded Hazard Creek’s flow, and the USGS holds a site name for the creek but not a day of data. The nearest live gauge is on the Little Salmon River at Riggins, about 18 miles downstream, with records back to 1951.

Source: USGS gauge 13316500, monthly means 1951–2025. Record peak 12,600 cfs on June 17, 1974.

Read the creek from that curve. The Little Salmon peaks in May and June and loses three-quarters of its flow by July. A tributary that heads at 7,000 feet runs on the same snowpack, so plan on high, cold water through June. The Forest Service says the Hazard Lakes country is snow-free from late July to October.

Heat is the other half of the story. The Riggins gauge logged water temperature from 1998 to 2005. Daily highs averaged 58 degrees in June, 66 in July and August, and 61 in September, with a record of 74. The creek runs colder than the main river, but fish mornings in July and August. September and October fish better.

Getting There

The lake and the lower creek are separate trips. The Forest Service routes campground traffic in from McCall over Brundage, not up Forest Road 287 from the highway. Fishing the lower creek is a day trip from the U.S. 95 turnoff.

How to Fish It

This is steep pocket water in a tight canyon. Cover it with short casts and a high-floating attractor dry, size 12 to 16, with a small beadhead dropper in the deeper slots. A 3- or 4-weight rod is plenty.

Sort your fish before you decide what to keep. Cutthroat and brook trout are fair game under the six-trout limit. Small rainbows are almost all young steelhead, so release them fast and wet. Any rainbow over 20 inches is a steelhead by law and must go back, and bull trout go back untouched.

The whitewater ratings tell you something about wading. This creek drops hard, and the Little Salmon at the mouth has four waterfalls in the run above it. Wade with care and stay out of the main river during runoff.

Two other central Idaho waters make a natural loop with this one. The Wind River drops into the main Salmon above Riggins under a two-trout rule, and Bear Valley Creek to the southeast is catch-and-release, so check each before you go.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Hazard Creek in Idaho?

Hazard Creek is a 16-mile tributary of the Little Salmon River in Idaho County. It meets the river at U.S. 95 milepost 176.5, about 16 miles north of New Meadows and 18 miles south of Riggins. The turnoff is Hazard Creek Road, Forest Road 287. The creek heads near Hazard Lake in the Payette National Forest, about 7,000 feet up.

What are the fishing rules on Hazard Creek?

Fish and Game’s planner lists no special rules, so Southwest Region general rules apply: open all year, trout limit six. Brook trout limit is 25 and bull trout are catch-and-release. Any rainbow over 20 inches counts as a steelhead and must go back, since no steelhead season opens here. Salmon fishing is prohibited. No bait ban, no barbless rule.

When is the best time to fish Hazard Creek?

July through October. There is no gauge on the creek, but the Little Salmon at Riggins averages 2,364 cubic feet per second in May, 2,217 in June, and 628 in July. The main river’s daily highs average 66 degrees in July and August. Fish the creek early in the day in midsummer. September and October are best.

What fish live in Hazard Creek?

Fish and Game’s 2026 survey found westslope cutthroat, brook trout, steelhead, Chinook salmon, salmonid fry, sculpin, and dace. Bull trout were recorded in 2023, a rainbow-cutthroat hybrid in 2022, and mountain whitefish in 2011. The creek got catchable rainbows in 1969 and 1971, then hatchery steelhead smolts from 1996 to 2009. Nothing has been stocked since April 2009.

Sources and Check Dates

• Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Fishing Seasons and Rules 2025–2027, second edition 2026: Southwest Region pages 25–27, including the Little Salmon River and Rapid River entries, and steelhead seasons page 53. Checked September 2026.
• IDFG Fishing Planner, Hazard Creek and Little Salmon River: species surveys, stocking records, and rules blocks. Checked September 2026.
• IDFG, Rapid River Fish Hatchery page; IDFG Little Salmon River Chinook fishing update, June 4, 2024; IDFG fall 2025 steelhead season notice. Checked September 2026.
• USGS gauge 13316500, Little Salmon River at Riggins: monthly statistics 1951–2025 and water temperature 1998–2005. USGS site inventory for Hazard Creek. Checked September 2026.
• Idaho Transportation Department, U.S. 95 milepoint log: Hazard Creek Road, Smokey Boulder Road, New Meadows, and Riggins mileposts. Checked September 2026.
• USDA Forest Service, Payette National Forest: Hazard Lake Campground, Hazard Lakes Area, ATV Trail 549, and New Meadows Ranger District pages. Hazard Creek Trail 317 details come from a search summary of a page that was offline, so treat them as unconfirmed. Checked September 2026.
• American Whitewater, Little Salmon River and Hazard Creek run descriptions, used for gradient and confluence access only.