Wild factor • 4
Trout rating • n/a
Fish caught • 3
Fishing season • For the short stretch west of Highway 1, steelhead fishing is allowed Dec. 1 through March 7, on certain days of the week. Trout fishing east of the bridge is open from the last Saturday in April through Nov. 15.
Directions • Villa Creek crosses Highway 1 in Monterey County 44 miles south of Big Sur State Park and 26 miles north of San Simeon.
Villa Creek isn't a candidate for wild and scenic status but it's one of several streams in Monterey County undergoing an intensive steelhead restoration project by various agencies. I caught three juvenile steelhead, which stay in the streams for up to three years before heading to the ocean. The fish had black spot disease, a parasitic infection that is linked to poor water quality, according to a study done on the Columbia River. Black spot doesn't pose a threat to humans, I was told at Central Coast Fly Fishing in Carmel, but occasionally gives rise to spinal problems and other disorders in infected fish.
