No McLean Creek-specific exception is listed in the Region 4 synopsis for the Forster/Frances family, so regional stream defaults apply: closed Apr 1 to Jun 14, trout and char catch-and-release Nov 1 to Mar 31, and a single barbless hook required in streams. Confirm the current synopsis and any in-season notices before fishing.

No survey in the local fish-inventory record has a direct entry for this McLean Creek. What's known comes from the wider Forster and Frances creek family it belongs to: that group carries confirmed records of brook trout, westslope cutthroat, rainbow trout and kokanee, with bull trout treated as part of the known or suspected system mix. The Steamboat Mountain fish habitat inventory places this Purcell Range country as glacier- and alpine-lake-fed, with steep, rugged headwaters and many low-order tributaries running ephemeral, avalanche-slope or low-flow by late summer, a reasonable starting hypothesis for McLean Creek too, not a confirmed record.

With no confirmed catch or survey record, McLean Creek reads as scout-first water rather than a planned destination. If it holds fish, expect the same small-stream character as the rest of the Forster and Frances family: brook trout, bull trout and westslope cutthroat in the cooler pockets, with rainbow trout more likely lower toward the Frances and Forster mainstems.

Food signal on the wider Forster and Frances system points to stoneflies, caddisflies and mayflies as the backbone hatches, with summer terrestrials adding to the mix once the water warms. A scouting box built on Adams and Elk Hair Caddis dries, backed by Hare's Ear and Pheasant Tail nymphs, covers the same water the rest of the Forster/Frances family fishes, if the connected cold-water habitat here proves out.

No public access point, road name or trailhead is confirmed for McLean Creek. Anglers exploring the drainage should expect the same backroad approach that applies across the smaller Forster and Frances tributaries near Radium Hot Springs, reached via Forster Main off the Radium Hot Springs or Brisco crossing.