PCT recommends avoiding fishing the areas of tailouts at the bottom of runs, since thats where the majority of spawning occurs. Some stop fishing the creek now til the end of February just to leave the spawners alone. Others fish carefully in other spots; only a few seemed to target fish on the redds last year. If you use good judgement in where/how you fish, you lower the risk.  

If you see me out on the creek, please don't throw anything at me as I CAREFULLY avoid possible spawning beds and fish other sections.... My schedule and talent/experience does not allow me to travel long distances to catch chrome and I can't wait 3 months to wet my line again. Is there somehwere I can sign to promise to be careful? I consider Putah my back yard and a precious resource. I am not naive enough to think that I will not have ANY impact but I promise to tread lightly and release quickly those FEW fish that are gullible enough to be caught by me!

Dan

Dan I was not trying to be Putah snob in my post.  Been doing this a long time and as the seasons change so does my mood and where I fish.  I have hammered Putah fish in the winter and some of my best days have been during BWO hatches in the open water with RS2 and smaller mayflies.  The prespawn putah bullets that go low teens are sooo much fun in those conditions.  Hope to see you out there in March and have fun while doing it.  Bob, if I am not mistaken you owe me a beer.

Otter wrote:

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Where's that Yuba report Bob. Rumor has it you were spotted hiking up to the narrows this morning...

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 Hiking the narrows

Float down from Englebright

georgek wrote:

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I have no intentions of starting the argument that went on last year with this question I'm just curious. I was looking back through older posts and saw a lot of reports from late december early january that were accompanied by pictures of large obviously spawning fish. Some pictures i could recognize as areas that generally have redds. Im just curious (as a relative newcomer to the website) as to when/why/how people stopped fishing (in my opinion) at spawning fish? Or am i mistaken about this?

 

Perhaps the four page argument one the subject last year kept people off the redds. I feel that this fall has been particularly good in terms of numbers of fish. I've caught a lot of 12 inch fish, and a couple nicer ones.

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 In my opinion, (which everyone pretty much knows) Is that the creek honestly should be closed during the next 3 months. I personally don't fish the creek during these months. The fish are way to vulnerable during the spawn. They need to be left alone. Even if you are not fishing a redd, that fish is on its way to spawn or is done and needs rest. The winter time is *NOT* the only time you can catch these fish. I have no problem catching big rainbows on Putah during the spring and summer months, you just have to work for it. I personally like the creek when the flows are 300-600+cfs. People flock to the creek during the spawn because it is much easier to catch these big fish or they are just ignorant and fish the redds because they don't know any better. Also it is not just fishing it is the careless wading you might walk thru the creek and not notice a redd, or it has already been covered by silt and it is unnoticeable. I'm not saying I have never fished the creek in the winter time, I use too. All the time even, but I realized and have seen the damage being caused to the fish and the creek during this time of year. I just found it more of a pain in the ass to avoid redds or fishing a good hole and then realizing that there are fish spawning in that hole. Fish will spawn anywhere they can in Putah, even in deeper water that you might not even think they would. Lets protect this fishery and leave these beautiful fish procreate in peace so we can enjoy this fishery for many many years to come. Peace.

 

- Nic

(Pic below is an example of a spawning pair of rainbows)