Flows

JT · Senior Member

Flows

FR0G · Veteran Member

With all this rain it should go up right?

LilWhippersnapper · Senior Member

The flows are showing at 648!!! Is that right, or is something wrong with it.

FR0G · Veteran Member

Holy cow! Either that thing is glitching, or putah is flowing fast.

brian clemens · Senior Member

cant believe it almost hit 700 cfs today, what will that do to the spawning fish and there redds.

shon42073 · Senior Member

It may be a mistake Brian. Then again it may not. There was some serious water coming down today, It might have swelled the river some but I dont think it would reach 700 from the rain. I beleive the gauging station is just above access 1. I'm really curious if the dry creek bed above the bridge is flowing now ? Anyone goes up to the creek tommorrow please post how water conditions are. I may fish on sunday.

Leicafish · Veteran Member

It would be really helpful if board members could take pictures or video of the effects of really low flows on the spawning fish. Flows going from 92 cfs to 50 cfs especially when there was going to be a slug of water later in the day probably wasn't necessary. Documentation of the harmful effects of low flows would go a long way to helping the dam operators manage the flows in a way that is better for the fish.

JT · Senior Member

It would be good to take pictures of the spawning beds when the flows are optimal and again once the flows have dropped.� If you do this make sure you document the time and location of the pictures.� Be sure to log the flows as well.� It would also be helpful to include the background of the picture that would aid in identifying the area in which the photo was taken.

dtp916 · Senior Member

Dude, the Creek was seriously high today. These water levels are off the charts!

JT · Senior Member

If the glory hole spills, then you'll see off the charts.

Xnjb707X · Senior Member

Lets not forget what happend 2 years ago on new years day when the creek got blown out tell damn near may! Which the rain we just had is not even close to what that couple of days was. I do hope the creek does blow out for awhile, its good for river systems to clense themselves once in awhile, it sucks cause we can't fish for awhile but its good for our creek! Bring on the rain! And for the spawning fish they will do fine, but its just that dropping the flows past 60cfs is the problem. Last year I saw a few too many of the redds getting exposed from the up and down flows, How can we find a solution for this problem?

- Nic

brian clemens · Senior Member

so as far as the eggs and them laying them, these high flows wont hurt the babies.

shon42073 · Senior Member

think it will be fishable tommorow ? Not concerned with high water, More concerned about muddy water.

brian clemens · Senior Member

hey cappy when is your next thursday friday day off. we need to get on the creek, or maybe the yuba or something.

Otter · Senior Member

The creek is blown out!!! It looks like chocolate milk. Stay home watch some football and tie some flies.

LilWhippersnapper · Senior Member

At least the flows are back down to 115.

Otter · Senior Member

I am going fishing next weekend no matter what. Well if we can get up to Sugar Bowl that may be better!!!! I am painting all my go to flies with glow in the dark paint. That's it cast and then blast down the slopes. It has happened before and it will happen again!

bono · Master Fly Fishing Guide

Generally speaking this time of year it doesnt take too long for the creek to clear up,because the lake is still clear and probably will be for awhile.Cold canyon and the other even smaller tribs are the ones thats responsible for the muddyness and they clean up and drop rather fast.Nic asked is there anything anybody can do about the low flow and spawning fish situation,yes there is and our non-profit for Putah group is working on it.We are trying to compile documentation of spawning fish and low water by taking pictures and videos and logging in info like what JT mentioned earlier.

swensonwest · Newbie

I haven't been on the creek since Christmas but as I understand it, SID won't let any water out of Beryessa until the glory hole goes over so any high water now is from runoff down the feeder creeks. I've found san juan worms effective in off color water on putah in the past.

Will a possible Wild Trout status on Putah put pressure on SID to take fish into account when scheduling water releases?

SK60 · Senior Member

Visited the creek this morning and it is starting to clear some-can see bottom in riffles at about 18 inches. Still a lot of silt suspended and some of the low trail spots are up to 6 inches deep in silted mud, so watch your step. Tried a bugger and SJ worm, but no takes. The 700 cfs surge moved a lot of small rocks around in tailouts and piled a lot of dislodged strands of water grass on to submerged tree limbs and some large rocks- I did a lot of hook cleaning.

LilWhippersnapper · Senior Member

It's gonna storm again tonight, so Putah will probably be muddy all week.

JT · Senior Member

Cold Creek dumped some more rock into Putah along with some silt.� It's not as bad as it was two years ago, but it's still early.

SCM · Senior Member

Does anyone have an update on the water conditions at the Creek? I saw the flows have ticked up over the last two days. Hopefully the water is clear enough for a Sunday trip.

Otter · Senior Member

The water is brownish green. Visibility is about 12 inches. I don't know if it will clear by Sunday. The dirty water is coming out of the lake. Cold creek is gin clear. Try a glow in the dark egg!!!!

cole · Senior Member

Glow in the dark paint? That would be cool. Have you ever sprinkled glitter into epoxy? It reminds me of kindergarten but betcha it would work. Sort of a multi-angular flashback?� It's basically flashabou cut into micro squares. wink

-- Edited by cole at 16:08, 2008-01-11

shon42073 · Senior Member

Thanx Otter, gues its another none fishing weekend huh.

Emerger · Senior Member

Man, when is the water gonna clear enough to fish again?

shon42073 · Senior Member

I hear ya Emerger.

-- Edited by thecaptain at 21:33, 2008-01-11

JT · Senior Member

Since the muddy water is coming from the lake, it could take a while to clear up.� The creek is always clear enough to fish.� Now catching, that's another story.�

-- Edited by JT at 22:32, 2008-01-11

brian clemens · Senior Member

i had a great day on thursday with the flows jumpin up and with it muddy,

cant believe how dry creek was blown out thats crazy, looks way different down there, and gin clear, man i wanted to drink some of it. but ofcourse there was that you better not youll get sick in the bakc of my mind.