Creek is thundering and the road is closed at the resort of

mudhen · Senior Member

Creek is thundering and the road is closed at the resort of

Rossflyguy · Senior Member

Imagine the narrow spots around 3 and 2. New water this summer.

Mike42 · Veteran Member

Approaching 4,000 cfs now!

mudhen · Senior Member

The first shot was the near bank at no. 4

-- Edited by mudhen on Saturday 18th of February 2017 03:51:34 PM

mudhen · Senior Member

The third photo was at deer sign. And that was only the first low are. The second channel that was opened up by the loader was behind it and the creek proper was way I back there somewhere

mudhen · Senior Member

That picnic table over by the drop to the spawning bed at three was up to the seat when I saw it. The narrow areas straight down from the parking lot at three were a torrent.

Nohackle2 · Veteran Member

Just a bit of history. On January 3, 2006 the creek flow hit 7180 CFS. On March 7, 2006 it again went over 7000 reaching 7010 CFS. So as difficult as it may be to believe, it can still go a lot higher.

mudhen · Senior Member

Man,that s wild. I hope it doesn't get that big tho' . I don't want Winters to float away

Rossflyguy · Senior Member

My buddy is a pilot. He sent me a pic of the creek from today....

Fornacino · Senior Member

Viewed in perspective, it seems like such a small hole.

Where do trout go during high flows; the lake? How was the fishing after the 7000 cfs flow in 2006?

mudhen · Senior Member

They go to the same holes they hide in when I'm trying to catch one...

Nohackle2 · Veteran Member

After the flows returned to normal the fishing was okay. However, the stream was still planted in 2006 so there wasn't that much of a noticeable difference. A couple years later (2008 to 2010), however, there seemed to be an absence of fish under 12 inches long. There was a good number of big fish but the absence of smaller fish was a concern. I'm guessing that the extreme flows and muddy water may have killed a lot of recently hatched fingerlings in 2006 and this caused to diminished population of small fish a couple of years later. That's just a theory, though.

To be perfectly honest, I haven't fished Putah that much the last couple of years. Some of my most reliable "honey holes" haven't produced at all and this has been very discouraging. I also have a bad left foot so I haven't scouted around looking for new ones.

Rossflyguy · Senior Member

There's tons of juvenile fish. I wouldn't worry about population decline. Fish in this fast water hug banks or find slow water.

mudhen · Senior Member

Rossflyguy wrote:
There's tons of juvenile fish. I wouldn't worry about population decline. Fish in this fast water hug banks or find slow water.

In Davis.....

Fornacino · Senior Member

Every year is different, but looking at my fishing notes of 4 years ago when I started fishing Putah, I find a lot of entries indicating a good number of catches in the 12" to 14" and even more in the 8" to 10". I've gotten better at my game over the last 4 years, yet my catch has declined considerably. As Nohackle2 said above, some of the most reliable fishing holes (for me) have produced little or none this past fall. Fewer and smarter fish, otters, mud, poachers, more fishing pressure? Something has happened but fewer fish are tugging at my nymphs. I hope this high water flow revives the fishery.

Rossflyguy · Senior Member

I haven't seen a decline in fish numbers the times I've been out. A lot of the sediment has changed favorite fishing holes not to mention the fire burning down once shaded areas. Fish move up and down solano and PC. The Fish and Game research notes different than what you've noticed. One volunteers comment to me was "there are more 20"+ fish than you'd believe". Maybe you guys need to change your tactics. Big fish don't survive on size 20 nymphs.

Fornacino · Senior Member

I'm happy to hear that you're still catching a good number of fish. And you're probably right on suggesting a change tactics. I've been fishing with size 18 hooks and under and have met people last year, that caught fish on streamers when I didn't catch any on nymphs. However, I still think that the effectiveness of nymphing has declined, at least for me, over the last couple of years.

mudhen · Senior Member

Fornacino wrote:
I'm happy to hear that you're still catching a good number of fish. And you're probably right on suggesting a change tactics. I've been fishing with size 18 hooks and under and have met people last year, that caught fish on streamers when I didn't catch any on nymphs. However, I still think that the effectiveness of nymphing has declined, at least for me, over the last couple of years.

Have you tried wrapping them with power bait?

Kaiteoshae · Member

Putah at 4k

Couple pics from up below bridge.

One looking down from bridge to the bend and the second from that area looking down to area I know as the staircase

lightfoot · Senior Member

The water looks fairly clean in those pictures. I wounder what the water color is like further downstream?

Otter · Senior Member

Access 1 yesterday pretty brown. Gets browner as you go downstream. Yesterday the flows were about 4,000 CFS today they are at around 5,700 CFS. Note the Handicap fishing ramp is underwater.

This site goes back to 2006 if you want to compare fishing after a blowout of glory hole. JT and JL had no problems catching fish.... We also found some bass for a while that apparently survived the trip through the glory hole.

-- Edited by Otter on Monday 20th of February 2017 05:27:43 PM

DrDan · Administrator

Putah Creek Trout Blog

Fornacino · Senior Member

RE: Creek is thundering and the road is closed at the resort of

Rossflyguy · Senior Member

Well it's at 7000 cfs. Excited to see the river change. Definitely gonna have some new holes.

mudhen · Senior Member

Fornacino wrote:
mudhen wrote:
Fornacino wrote:
I'm happy to hear that you're still catching a good number of fish. And you're probably right on suggesting a change tactics. I've been fishing with size 18 hooks and under and have met people last year, that caught fish on streamers when I didn't catch any on nymphs. However, I still think that the effectiveness of nymphing has declined, at least for me, over the last couple of years.
Have you tried wrapping them with power bait?
Is that what you do?

Naw, I use corn myself. wink ...And the flow is up to 8000 cfs now.

-- Edited by mudhen on Tuesday 21st of February 2017 06:31:10 AM

bono · Master Fly Fishing Guide

I live at the ranch on the back side ( West) of access 5 and I was checking out the island yesterday. These are pretty high flows but I've seen higher back in the 1990s ( not sure exactly what year) but back then the entire big island at #5 was under water. Prior to 2004 the topping of the glory hole and the resulting high water was a normal occurrence which was a good thing for the creeks health. It was also kinda cool because the higher flows kept the creek in a constant state of change , producing new places to fish that didn't exist the year before. On a different note I have been witnessing the gradual filling-in of lower lake solano. According to Solano County Water Agency there is no current plan to do anything about it but will possibly just let it channelized naturally and maybe just turn itself into a creek again.

Rossflyguy · Senior Member

Solano is definitely collecting most of the sediment.