Putah Creek

[rippinstreamers]

Spent the day on Putah Creek yesterday, which turned out to be a excellent day of fishing. flows were up around 225 and water was still running clear. Usually when I go there, it is more to spend time on the water than have a productive day of catching fish, battling blackberry brambles and poison oak. I dont know if it was the recent raise in cfs, but the fish were where they were supposed to be and actually some sizable fish for that river. Now typically you read the reports for over there and you say ok teeny bugs tiny tippet, but there was a small caddis hatch happening and fish were keyed into size twelve caddis pupa and emergers. Fish were occasionally feeding on the surface, but I could not buy them on a caddis dry. I ran the gamut of fly patterns according to what was coming off but still no luck, then a little critter was crawling on my neck which I surely thought was a tick. Turned out to be a little red ant(size 18), so naturally that was my next pattern to choose. whammy, sure enough I landed three on a small ant red ant pattern! overall i walked away landing 10 fish, a majority in the 15 to 16 inch range.

[Sammy]

those are great numbers for the putah. thanks for the report

[fj40]

Who happens to have a small red ant pattern with them? Thats awesome. Great day. Thanks for report!

[RJSFLYTRIP]

That is impressive that you had the ant pattern with you on the creek. That means you must have had that vest packed to the hilt. Its great to hear that you did well on the creek. What a great spot and perfect flows. I love it between 200-300cfs down there.

[rippinstreamers]

Thanks, yea my tailwater box originates from the San Juan River. I guided down there for a couple years and didn't leave home without a wide variety of black and cinnamon ant dries. When you hit it right down there, the ant was all you needed on an otherwise size 24 fly river. Went back today just to see if it was a fluke, fished for about 4 hours and did seven fish. flows were up just a bit, right around 277 but still clear. Got them to eat stones today, who know maybe streamers tomorrow!

[stonefly58]

Those are good numbers and a decent size too! A red ant, Learn something new everyday! I was on Putah last Sunday and did well too, but used my own midge pattern. I did notice all of the ants moving and made sure not to stand in the middle of them.:D Do you have a favorite turnout?

[ownfl4g]

too windy this afternoon?

[Tony Buzolich]

I used to fish Putah Creek regularly on my way to work in Vacaville in the mornings. My best trout ever was 27" taken on a #18 Red Serendipity. Maybe that's the key,,,,small red flies?
Tony

[ownfl4g]

Thats quite the commute, I used to fish it on my way back from the bay area about once a week. I was required to be in oakland or SF on any given day and I would just call it a day on my way back through and fish Putah Creek....my boss didnt seem to mind since I was the one being in SF at 7AM.

[rippinstreamers]

wow, a 27 inch fish out of that place would be quite the battle, did you have to swim to keep with it? All the sizable fish that I have hook run straight down to the deeps/unwadable water, which usually ends in a LDR. I guess that keeps an even playing field though. I am still in the hunt for a brown trout out of there, I really would love to catch one on this side of the sierras down here. I understand there are some bruisers that still lurk in there too. Is it at all fishable down stream closer towards town? Never have heard or looked around, just seems to be still water any chance I get a glance of the river. Stonefly58 my favorite pullout does not have a name but it is the fast water between 1 and 2 I think. Has not been the most productive for me, but allows me to fish czech style with heavy bugs so I dont have to mess around with all leader additions.

[stonefly58]

I have fished Putah for over 30 years, and I have landed some very nice fish in the high 20 inch range. Two years ago I guided a friend and put him on a 28 inch rainbow, and have photos to prove it! needless to say he was very grateful.:D

I think I know where you were fishing rippenstreamers, the water there can be very productive, pending the flows are right. About 16 years ago I hooked and landed, not too far from there, a 12 inch Brown on a #16 light cahill, the only one I have ever caught out of Putah. I have heard there are some bruisers in there, but never hooked one.

I checked the flows today at 4:47pm, they are at 310 cfs, perfect, lets hope it stays at that flow. Saturday morning can't come soon enough!

[Tony Buzolich]

One of the best guides for Putah Creek browns would be Toby Uppinghouse. He's also the TFO rep, for this area. Toby got me into the right areas and the rest was on my own, but I've seen pictures of Toby holding brown's the size of small salmon taken in Putah.

Doc Cedar is another one to talk to concerning big browns. Getting to them is tough because of the weed beds going through slow water, and to make it even worse it's right at dark.

When they used to plant Lake Solano those big browns would gorge on the planters and then return to the dark slow water during the day.
Tony

[Rossflyguy]

When I was a little younger and they still stocked rainbows, I seen very large browns down by the lower bridge in solano. Before I really started to fly fish I used to bait fish off that bridge. Another fisherman had a stringer hanging off the bridge and it was bouncing up and down. We looked over and the trout on the stringer were going nuts. There was a large shadow underneath them, a few seconds later it was a huge brown and it tore one of the trout off the stringer. The guy next to me pulled his stringer up and used the other trout as bait (which is illegal). Well it worked BUT the brown spooled his reel and got away. I'll never forget the size of that fish.