1st Time on Putah Creek Recommendations?

[mattv-mcfly]

This Saturday will be my first time fishing Putah Creek. I've researched a bit about the creek and have found it is a small tippet, small flies, and small stream fishing.
I'm planning on fishing around parking #1 and #2 with a 6wt with bwo nymph with a midge dropper as a good all around choice.

Is there any recommendation for patterns?
Looking at a map of the creek it's not a lot of water to fish with about less than 2 miles with a few mini lakes in between. Is it more accommodating than it looks?
How technical is the fishing in comparison to places like the Yuba?

[Rmacneil656]

It's a great fishery. You can find fish from the upper dam to the lower damn. All general trout tactics work there, but lots of people do nymph there. If you are nymphing small usually works well at these flows because there is a ton of vegetation in that river & it is low and clear. If you take a look at the insect life you'll find lots of small midges. A word of caution: don't go too light on the tippet, if you run into one of the putah hogs it'll break you off. Not really similar to the yuba, there is a lot of overhang so be ready to roll cast, a lot. Its also very brushy with lots of blackberry so watch your waders. Please watch where you step, there aren't many places there that have a good cobble bottom conducive for wading. If you do find the nice cobble bottom its likely that fish just spawned there recently ( they are fall/winter spawners there mostly).

[mattv-mcfly]

I'll definitely try and keep off the redds. Although I don't know where they are yet I'll keep a look out.
I just tied on some 5x tippet with a 6x dropper and now that you mention that I'll put the 4x back on. Just in case.

[Bob Loblaw]

If you can resist scratching that Putah itch for another couple of weeks I'd advise that you do so. The spawn usually finishes beginning to middle of March.

I stopped fishing the spawning months a couple of years ago when I was fishing a deep hole that clearly wasn't a redd, and I though t I knew where all the redds in that stretch were. After a few minutes a really nice fish started shooting out of the shadows and chasing my nymph, it got the heart pounding quite a bit. After 4 or 5 feints, he hit the fly and took off down stream putting a big smile on my face. I eventually for the 19 inch buck into the net and quickly released him. A couple of minutes later I notices the hen on a really small patch of white gravel that was barely visible about 20 feet upstream through the bushes. that's when I realized I'd caught a spawning fish that was defending a redd.

Moral of the story, even when you honestly try to avoid spawners, you can still catch them.

[Mr T]

If you can resist scratching that Putah itch for another couple of weeks I'd advise that you do so. The spawn usually finishes beginning to middle of March.

I stopped fishing the spawning months a couple of years ago when I was fishing a deep hole that clearly wasn't a redd, and I though t I knew where all the redds in that stretch were. After a few minutes a really nice fish started shooting out of the shadows and chasing my nymph, it got the heart pounding quite a bit. After 4 or 5 feints, he hit the fly and took off down stream putting a big smile on my face. I eventually for the 19 inch buck into the net and quickly released him. A couple of minutes later I notices the hen on a really small patch of white gravel that was barely visible about 20 feet upstream through the bushes. that's when I realized I'd caught a spawning fish that was defending a redd.

Moral of the story, even when you honestly try to avoid spawners, you can still catch them.

Excellent point- thanks for the reminder!

[Rmacneil656]

If you can resist scratching that Putah itch for another couple of weeks I'd advise that you do so. The spawn usually finishes beginning to middle of March.

I stopped fishing the spawning months a couple of years ago when I was fishing a deep hole that clearly wasn't a redd, and I though t I knew where all the redds in that stretch were. After a few minutes a really nice fish started shooting out of the shadows and chasing my nymph, it got the heart pounding quite a bit. After 4 or 5 feints, he hit the fly and took off down stream putting a big smile on my face. I eventually for the 19 inch buck into the net and quickly released him. A couple of minutes later I notices the hen on a really small patch of white gravel that was barely visible about 20 feet upstream through the bushes. that's when I realized I'd caught a spawning fish that was defending a redd.

Moral of the story, even when you honestly try to avoid spawners, you can still catch them.

Sometimes its hard not too, but it happens. You shouldn't feel bad about it. I have seen fish spawn in that river from October-March. Its hard to avoid it for 6 months out of the year! As long as you aren't sight fishing (aka puddle punching) 1.5 foot of water with an indicator, 6 ft of tipet to your size 22 zebra midge practically snagging or flossing fish you're ok in my book!

[Rossflyguy]

Have to agree with Rmacneil. I stop fishing it from end of Oct to beginning of Feb. Most of the fish will be in post spawn phase. You might see a few active redds from late spawners still in the skinny water. I was out there a couple weeks ago and didn't fish anything less than 4-5' of water.The fish I caught were post spawn. They looked slim. I didn't see any spawners up at the popular spawn site but saw a few fish at another that's not as visible. You don't need to go down to 6x, stick with 4x-5x. It's not that cold out so you can use birds nest or any caddis pattern with a bwo dropper. A redd looks like a patch of cleaned gravel. If you walk up on a pair of fish that don't spook in skinny water chances are they're a spawning pair. Putah is a technical place. It's nothing like the Yuba. Be prepared to get snagged in the trees. The river doesn't look large on a map but there's a lot of good water there. Honestly fish are throughout the entire body of water. From dam to dam. I'll be out there this Saturday.

[SebastianV]

My favorite time on Putah is end of March thru May. The flows aren't fully cranked up yet and the fish are off the spawn and super hungry.
Once the flows are at their highest by mid summer, taking a pontoon, canoe, or float tube up by the dam is fun. Lots of the fish head up there mid-summer.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

They have finally gotten some good regulations on Putah Creek to protect the mostly wild trout population.

In the 1970s we float tubed it a lot down in the Lake Solano section in the summers. Don't forget about that part of the fisheries.

The creek usually has a low flow in the winter and a high flow in the summer for irrigation.

I am thinking it will just get a little better every year now.

http://www.putahcreekflyfishing.com/

http://www.kiene.com/portfolio-view/putah-creek/

http://www.kiene.com/portfolio-view/solano-lake/

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[Bob Loblaw]

They have finally gotten some good regulations on Putah Creek to protect the mostly wild trout population.

In the 1970s we float tubed it a lot down in the Lake Solano section in the summers. Don't forget about that part of the fisheries.

The creek usually has a low flow in the winter and a high flow in the summer for irrigation.

I am thinking it will just get a little better every year now.

http://www.putahcreekflyfishing.com/

http://www.kiene.com/portfolio-view/putah-creek/

http://www.kiene.com/portfolio-view/solano-lake/

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Bill,

Putah was designated a Wild Trout Water back in December by DFW. It hasn't been planted in I believe 6 years and I think all the fish in there are 100% wild! (and hard to catch)

[Rossflyguy]

I checked it out this past weekend. No spawners and the fish are in post spawn. It was a tough bite this past weekend. The water was colder than it has been lately.

[mattv-mcfly]

I was able to get out Saturday. Found a few fish but didn't have much luck though as I think the fish were in the post-spawn blues ignoring everything I threw at them. A man I talked to said it was the toughest time he's ever fished the creek.
Overall an interesting experience. The water is a lot smaller and deeper than I thought was. Looks like its a pretty tough place to enforce the regs too with the amount of easy access and big population minutes away.