No Gopher Creek-specific exception turned up in the checked Region 4 extraction, so the regional default applies: standard trout and char limits, single-barbless-hook and bait restrictions where posted, and seasonal closures where in effect. Confirm the current synopsis and any in-season notices before fishing.

Gopher Creek's mouth sits at 50.53911, -116.37843, in the Horsethief Creek drainage, itself part of the Columbia River system. It runs stream order 4 (mid-range on a scale that runs from 1 for a headwater trickle up to 6 or more for a full river), and the channel geometry across its roughly 30 mapped segments is small and steep throughout: median width around 4.4 m (narrow), median gradient around 14.95% (steep), and peak mean-annual discharge around 0.373 m³/s (very low flow). That profile reads like a typical small headwater tributary rather than water built to hold a resident population at any scale.

The local fish-inventory extraction returned no direct records for Gopher Creek, unlike Horsethief siblings such as Bruce Creek (bull trout) and McDonald Creek (rainbow trout). That absence does not prove the creek is fishless, small tributaries like this one are chronically under-surveyed, but it does mean there is nothing confirmed here to plan a trip around. If access and a resident population are confirmed later, the standard Horsethief-family box would be the starting point: a Stimulator or Elk Hair Caddis up top, a Hare's Ear or Pheasant Tail underneath, the same searching patterns that work the rest of the Dutch and Horsethief tributaries.

No named trailhead, put-in or parking area has been confirmed for Gopher Creek itself. Anyone exploring the wider drainage should start from Horsethief Creek and its access road network, and treat any approach to Gopher Creek as unconfirmed until checked on the ground.