It’s funny since I started fishing heavily I see people throw this word around left and right to refer to any river that isn’t the Mississippi. By definition a creek is a very shallow (1-10”) stream that feeds into a river.  There are deep holes and they go up when it rains obviously but they are not rivers. Yet I regularly see people refer to relatively sizable rivers as “creeks” in the fishing community and it is puzzling to me.  I suppose it is good to be able to use it to distinguish big rivers from small but I just wonder how accurate it is? 

To me (former Mid-Atlantic guy), tiny waters that are basically non-navigable are brooks and runs. A creek may be small (or very small), but some named creeks I know are easily navigable by canoes, yaks and even boats. 

Look the defination of the difference detween River, Stream, Creek and brook.

Interesting how many different definations there are!

US Geological defination makes since.

Tom

I hadn't heard the under 10" definition before, but there's a few waters around central VA with "creek" in their name that run a few feet deep.  Eastern VA has awesome tidal creeks that are great kayak fishing too.  Some even have marinas on them.  But yeah, I wouldn't be too keen on paddling less than 10" of water.  Sounds fun to hike with the fly rod maybe

Here in Missouri there is a wide range of what they call creeks and rivers.  For example, there are two creeks that run almost in parallel on a northerly flow, the Huzzah and Courtois Creeks, that have just as much water in them or more at their confluences as some of the other streams that they call rivers. A lot of Missouri streams start  very small and are creeklike though and gradually get bigger as more and more springs and tributaries feed them. 

20 hours ago, KayakJimW said:

I hadn't heard the under 10" definition before, but there's a few waters around central VA with "creek" in their name that run a few feet deep.  Eastern VA has awesome tidal creeks that are great kayak fishing too.  Some even have marinas on them.  But yeah, I wouldn't be too keen on paddling less than 10" of water.  Sounds fun to hike with the fly rod maybe

X2.

 

We fish creeks in our bass boats all the time in the tidal Virginia waters.

 

One of the most popular creeks is the Aquia Creek that flows into the Potomac River.

 

Check it out on Google Earth.

 

And there are many smaller creeks that we go into with our boats that are narrow but there is enough water to support a fish popultion and our boats.

Heck, nubush creek on Kerr lake/bug island,  is half the size of the lake and is bigger than .most lakes.

I went about 6 miles down a local "river" in my kayak that is no bigger than a creek most of the time. It did rain a little the night before we took the trip. We still had to get out and walk a good bit of the trip. I caught a couple fish. If I were to do it again, I'd cut the trip in half and fish more.

Well there is the saying "Up the creek without a paddle" so I'm assuming that some creeks can be paddled. ?

They rent canoes and yaks on Antietam Creek in Maryland, so yes, you can paddle in a creek. Maybe not all, but many. 

 

Black Creek Mississippi ... designated as scenic ... folks come from all over the country to launch their canoes and kayaks on the 21 miles of beautiful scenery and great fishing for red bellies, LMB, Spotted bass, catfish and bluegills to name a few ... Brooklyn Mississippi ... is popular ...

 

good fishing ...

Minnehaha Creek is navigable by canoe from it's source at the Grays Bay dam on Lake Minnetonka all the way to the Mississippi...with a short portage around the Minnehaha Falls. Supposedly some good fishing in there too.

 

(Being fairly quiet until I get the power supply in my desktop replaced...typing on the tablet is a pain)