Upper Hills Creek

A short, gentle Highland Rim creek near the Warren–Grundy line, reached from McMinnville — the upper, stocked reach of Hills Creek, a small tributary of the Collins River. TWRA stocks it with rainbow trout for the cool months, and that's what it is, honestly: a modest, close-to-home put-and-take creek fished best when the water is cold.

Stocked put-and-take rainbow trout · Best: the cool months — spring after the stocking is prime · The upper, stocked reach in the Irving College country near the Warren–Grundy line · Warren County · TWRA Region III

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Overview

A small Collins feeder, stocked up top.Hills Creek is a small tributary of the Collins River in southeastern Warren County (USGS/GNIS feature 1287839), and it is the upper, stocked reach — the water TWRA manages for trout — that this guide covers, hence the name. The creek rises near the Warren–Grundy county line at roughly 1,090 feet and runs a short distance northwest through the Irving College country before joining the Collins just north of the county line at about 880 feet. Its whole trout-relevant length sits inside a single USGS quadrangle (Irving College). Through the Collins, the Caney Fork, and the Cumberland it belongs to the Ohio and Mississippi watershed. The nearest town and base for the trip is McMinnville, about ten miles northwest.

How it works, in plain terms.This is a freestone — no dam on its course, so its flow is rain, runoff, and limestone seep. It runs where the Highland Rim meets the western toe of the Cumberland Plateau, over Mississippian limestone: karst country of springs, sinkholes, and caves that gives the creek a cool, clear, spring-influenced base flow between rains over a bed of limestone, chert gravel, and cobble. It is a short, low-gradient creek — a gentle drop of about 210 feet from headwaters to mouth, pool-and-riffle and limestone-ledge water, not a plunge-pool mountain stream. It runs low and clear in dry spells and rises and colors fast after hard rain, then drops and clears within a day or two. Everything about the fishery comes back to temperature: it holds cool and trout-friendly through the cool months and in the shaded, spring-fed upper reach, but warms past comfort in high summer — which is exactly why it is stocked and fished as a cool-weather put-and-take water rather than a wild-trout stream.

The trout, honestly.Upper Hills Creek is a stocked put-and-take rainbow trout creek. TWRA stocks its upper reach with rainbows each spring — the 2026 schedule lists an April 5 stocking — and those stocked rainbows are the reason a fly angler comes here; the cool months are the productive window. It is not a wild-trout stream, and it is not a brook-trout stream. Native Southern Appalachian brook trout in Tennessee persist in the coldest Blue Ridge and Unaka headwaters, generally above about 3,000 feet — a low Highland Rim creek near 1,000 feet is far outside that world, so this water carries no Brook-Trout Micro-Box and no native population. Near the mouth, where the creek meets the Collins, the parent river's warmwater community begins — smallmouth, rock bass, sunfish — so an angler working the lower creek in warm months may find bass as readily as trout.

A little history.Upper Hills Creek's story is the quiet history of a southeastern Warren County creek in the Irving College country — small-farm and rural land near the Warren–Grundy line, at the edge where the Highland Rim rises toward the Cumberland Plateau. Its heritage is agricultural and local, and its fishing heritage is recent and simple: it is one of the small Collins-basin creeks TWRA stocks to spread trout opportunity across the region.

Before you wade: Upper Hills is a small freestone that rises and muddies fast after rain, over slick limestone; much of it crosses private farm ground. See Flow & Conditions before every trip.

Flow & Conditions

Read the water before you wade.Upper Hills is a freestone — no dam, no generation schedule. Flow is read the freestone way, by recent rain and the creek's visible stage. It runs low and clear in dry spells and rises and colors fast after hard rain, dropping and clearing within a day or two. The practical rule is the freestone's — fish it as it drops and clears, and stay off it high and muddy. This is small, gentle water, but it carries ordinary small-creek hazards: slick limestone and cobble, undercut banks, barbed wire and fences in farm country, and fast, muddy rises after hard rain. Much of the creek crosses private land — ask permission, respect posted ground, and never cross fenced pasture without leave. The country is rural and help is not close, so carry water and a charged phone, leave a plan, and let someone know it.

Flow & conditions — no live gauge here.Upper Hills Creek has no USGS gauge of its own. There is no live number to read here. Judge it by eye at the access and by recent rain — clear and dropping is good; high, fast, and muddy means off the water. As a regional proxy for whether the country is high or low, watch the Collins-basin USGS gauges at McMinnville and the recent-rainfall picture before you drive.

In the guide — read flow into a safe day.The full flow × season matrix — low-and-clear, medium-and-clear, rising-and-stained after rain, and high-and-muddy — with what each stage means for whether you wade, where, and how you fish it, is in the Upper Hills Creek guide.→ Join the list — I’ll send the launch note when the store opens.

Regs

License. In Tennessee, children under 13 may fish without a license. Anglers 13 and older need a valid Tennessee fishing license, and fishing for trout also requires the Trout Supplemental.

The Upper Hills rules. Upper Hills Creek is managed under Tennessee's statewide trout regulations as a seasonally stocked put-and-take creek unless posted otherwise — there is no special slot or artificial-only season on this water. Because it is put-and-take, a fresh stocking is the difference between a good day and an empty one: confirm the current TWRA stocking schedule before a trip, as small-creek dates shift year to year.

A private-land reality. Much of Upper Hills Creek crosses private rural land. The regulations let you keep stocked fish; the landowner decides whether you're standing there at all. Ask permission, honor every posting, and never cross fenced pasture without leave.

Confirm before you go. TWRA revises trout regulations and stocking schedules cycle to cycle. Confirm the current rule and the current-year stocking dates on the live TWRA pages before every trip.

Official links:- TWRA trout regulations ↗- Buy a Tennessee license ↗- TWRA trout stocking schedule ↗- TWRA Region III: 615-781-6622 / 800-624-7406

Hatches

The signature hatch: honestly, this is a modest-hatch, forage-and-terrestrial creek, not a hatch-match river — match the small stuff and lean on searching patterns. The constant is the midge, fished year-round and the cool-season staple, with Blue-Winged Olives on overcast days from late fall through spring, modest caddis and small mayflies in spring, and terrestrials — ants, beetles, an inchworm — in the shaded upper reach through summer.

The full hatch and forage calendar (year-round midges, the late-fall-through-spring BWO, the spring caddis window, and the summer terrestrial game), the tactics keyed to each window (short tight-line and micro-indicator nymphing, a buoyant dry-dropper for searching, and a light streamer through the deeper pools for holdovers and lower-creek bass), and the curated Year-Round Core Box — Beadhead Pheasant Tail, Parachute Adams, Zebra Midge, an olive/black Woolly Bugger, and a foam beetle — plus the seasonal Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter boxes are in the guide.→ Join the list — I’ll send the launch note when the store opens.

Field

Cell coverage: This is rural Highland Rim farm country, and the guide's plain instruction is to carry a charged phone, leave a trip plan, and know that help is not close. Do not assume a reliable signal along the creek — confirm your carrier before you rely on it, and carry a way to call for help.

The full field-communications plan — GMRS/ham setup, the downloadable CHIRP channel file, and the satellite safety net — plus the field first-aid kit, gear and packing list, and rigging diagrams (nymph, dry-dropper, and streamer rigs for a 4–5-weight small-creek setup) are in the guide.→ Join the list — I’ll send the launch note when the store opens.

Access

Upper Hills is a rural creek that mostly crosses private land, so the guide fixes the public-record geography — the mouth, the short course, and the headwaters — with verified coordinates (USGS/GNIS, NHD flowline, and 3DEP elevation, cross-checked against the Irving College quadrangle) rather than implying access where access must be earned by permission. It maps the creek from the mouth at the Collins up through the stocked mid-reach to the cool headwaters toward the Grundy line, with a downloadable GPX, a full-resolution access map, the McMinnville services base, and honest field notes on which reach fishes when — all in the guide.→ Join the list — I’ll send the launch note when the store opens.

Conserve

A stocking laid over a working landscape. The stocking here is a fishing-opportunity program layered onto rural farm country, not a wild-trout restoration. The lower Collins basin carries the ordinary burdens of that country — sediment, altered streambanks, and runoff — and a small creek like this one feels them directly. Its trout are seasonal guests: they feed hard when fresh and cool, are cropped by anglers and predators, and thin out as the water warms. The creek's health depends on the same watershed stewardship that keeps the Collins clean, so the conservation duty here is simple and local — fish it lightly, respect the private land it crosses, and be a good guest.

Leave No Trace, on this water:- Plan ahead — learn the creek's normal level, treat recent or upstream rain as a reason to stay to the edges or stay home, watch for barbed wire and undercut banks, and know that coverage is unreliable and help is not close.- Earn your access — much of the creek is private; ask permission, honor every posting, and never cross fenced pasture without leave. The fishery exists on the goodwill of the landowners it crosses.- Pack out everything — including every inch of tippet and leader — discarded mono and fluorocarbon entangle the herons, kingfishers, and mink that work these banks; carry out your line, split-shot cards, and fly packaging along with the rest.- Handle the fish you release with care — keep them wet, handle them quickly and wet-handed, and let the better holdovers swim; on a small creek the fish are a limited, hard-used resource.

FAQ (answer-first)

• Q: Where is Upper Hills Creek?It's the upper, stocked reach of Hills Creek, a small tributary of the Collins River in southeastern Warren County, Tennessee — in the Irving College country near the Warren–Grundy county line, about ten miles southeast of McMinnville (TWRA Region III). The trout water is the small upper reach that TWRA stocks; near the mouth it meets the Collins and turns warmwater.
• Q: When can I actually fish it for trout?In the cool months. This is a stocked put-and-take creek that's cool and trout-friendly through the cold season and warms past trout tolerance in high summer. Spring — after the spring stocking, with cool water — is the prime window; the creek cools and fishes again in fall. In high summer the trout thin out, and you're better off at dawn or dusk up in the shaded headwaters, or fishing Collins-system bass near the mouth.
• Q: Do I need a license?In Tennessee, children under 13 may fish without a license. Anglers 13 and older need a valid Tennessee fishing license, and fishing for trout also requires the Trout Supplemental. The Regs tab links you to the current rules and the license page.
• Q: What are the trout regulations?Upper Hills Creek is managed under Tennessee's statewide trout regulations as a seasonally stocked put-and-take creek unless posted otherwise — no special slot and no artificial-only season. Because it's put-and-take, timing your trip near a fresh stocking matters; confirm the current TWRA regulations and stocking schedule before every trip, as small-creek dates shift year to year.
• Q: Is it wadeable — and is there a gauge to check?It's small, gentle, wadeable water in the cool season when it's low or medium and clear — a short, low-gradient limestone creek, not a plunge-pool gorge. But it's a freestone: it rises and muddies fast after hard rain, so you don't fish it high and muddy. There's no USGS gauge on the creek, so you read it the freestone way — by eye at the access and by recent rain — and use the Collins-basin gauges at McMinnville as a regional proxy. Watch for slick limestone, undercut banks, and farm fencing.
• Q: Do I need permission to fish it?Often, yes. Much of Upper Hills Creek crosses private rural land, and the guide fixes the creek's public-record geography rather than implying access. Ask permission, respect every posting, and never cross fenced pasture without leave.
• Q: What will I catch?Stocked rainbow trout — this is a put-and-take fishery with no meaningful natural reproduction and no native brook trout. The better fish are holdovers that survive in the deeper, colder pools. Near the mouth, and through the warm season, you'll find the Collins system's warmwater fish — smallmouth, rock bass, and sunfish.
• Q: What's open, and what's in the guide?Open now: this overview, the read-the-water conditions and official TWRA links, the regulations, and conservation. The guide adds the verified coordinates and GPX, the full hatch and forage calendar and tactics, the seasonal and Year-Round Core boxes, the flow × season matrix, and the field-comms plan.