Freaking social media... There are "certain" guides out there who ridiculously spam #putahcreek on Instagram 3 or 4 times a day to promote there business. I get it, it's how they make money. Its just more annoying than anything.. I'm not trying to toss shade at guides, maybe just more at the way I see some go at promoting their guide hustle. With that said, the creek isn't any secret. There used to be mass amounts of people fishing back in the day when it was stocked. It's just starting to look like those masses are returning just in the form of bobber fishing triple fly rig nymph junkies. (slight shade thrown there ) It just sucks to see my home water blown up all to **** again. But that's just me being selfish. Only time will tell if the wild population of trout can handle all the exposure on social media and pressure from the new masses of fishermen coming to the creek, not to mention the abuse of the winter puddle pitchers. Just a FYI, I'm not against posting pictures of fish, it's something to be proud about and it's nice to see those pics. JUST DONT HASHTAG THE WATER! Peace.
Yeah social media have really blown up the place up, just go on Instagram and look up the hashtag “#putahcreek” and you’ll see why.
The number of guides on the creek has also gone up too, I believe that there is at least 8 guides now guiding the creek from what I heard. That’s quite a number of guides for a 4 mile stretch.
You guys are nuts, btw, blaming social media. It is so far off the mark that you are totally blinded by the falsehood. The Russian River, just as ONE example, was absolutely destroyed years and years and years BEFORE social media existed. There were prams and people on foot lined up literally shore to shore throwing lines and catching virtually every steelhead that came through. It's simply a function of population vs available and easily accessible space. That said, it sucks how much some of the guides promote it, especially since it is one of the easiest places to be not guided. Then again, those people would probably be fishing it anyway, so they might as well get paid to take them out.
-- Edited by Skol Bandit on Wednesday 1st of May 2019 07:01:16 AM
-- Edited by Skol Bandit on Wednesday 1st of May 2019 09:16:16 AM
You guys are nuts, btw, blaming social media. It is so far off the mark that you are totally blinded by the falsehood. The Russian River, just as ONE example, was absolutely destroyed years and years and years BEFORE social media existed. There were prams and people on foot lined up literally shore to shore throwing lines and catching virtually every steelhead that came through. It's simply a function of population vs available and easily accessible space. That said, it sucks how much some of the guides promote it, especially since it is one of the easiest places to be not guided. Then again, those people would probably be fishing it anyway, so they might as well get paid to take them out.
-- Edited by Skol Bandit on Wednesday 1st of May 2019 07:01:16 AM
-- Edited by Skol Bandit on Wednesday 1st of May 2019 09:16:16 AM
To use the Russian river as an example is a bad comparison. The Russian was destroyed by damming it up and over fishing from word of mouth. Putah Creek has a lot more people because of social media just like Pyramid Lake has blown up from social media. Sorry but you’re in denial if you don’t think social media doest have an affect and the say it’s sucks guides are tagging Putah Creek in their pics.
I agree with you Rossflyguy, if you don’t see the impact certain guides have had on the creek due to social media as their sole source of promotion; you either haven’t been around awhile, you’re friends with them, or you’re blind. That said, even this forum fell under a ton of scrutiny a while back because people were checking it for info and pictures to know when the spawn was going on to go out and fish. That whole situation has gotten much better in recent years due to everyone speaking up. Maybe it’s time to speak up and tell some (one) non local guide to chill out and learn a few more waters so they don’t over promote and rape the creek constantly. On the bright side, even though crowds suck when you’re looking to get away, the spring and summer crowds are way better for the creek than the winter crowds of years past.
There have been "overfishing/publicity" issues on almost every fishing river for at least 50 years. Most of that "over-crowdedness" took place before social media existed. People blamed every thing you can imagine for it - magazines, newspapers, loudmouths - now social media. It all has an impact, but social media is not the blame. This is a problem that has always existed and it comes from media or talk in any format. Have less children.
Have less children? There’s less people fishing these days compared to 15-20 yrs ago. That’s a fact. People are promoting specific rivers more than others and so rivers get more visitors because of the “hit bite”. It’s not hard to understand that. Pyramid lake really had no crowds until people were posting 20lb cutthroats on social media. You’re in denial.
No. You're just trying to point the finger at something for what you don't like. You are too biased against social media to realize and acknowledge that all of the things you are complaining about, while maybe not to the particular one or two watersheds you cited, have been happening for a much much longer period of time than "social media" has existed to a much much larger scope of watersheds. And, yes, have less children.
People want to fish were the fish are human nature putah, pyramid, yuba, if they read it's fishing well their there, I don't know if you can blame guides they go were the fish are, how close to putah do you have to live to feel it's yours an Hour, 2 hours you can't tell people who don't live near the macloud not to fish it or the upper sac. not to come because they don't live close because you go there all the time does not make it yours
People want to fish were the fish are human nature putah, pyramid, yuba, if they read it's fishing well their there, I don't know if you can blame guides they go were the fish are, how close to putah do you have to live to feel it's yours an Hour, 2 hours you can't tell people who don't live near the macloud not to fish it or the upper sac. not to come because they don't live close because you go there all the time does not make it yours
Not necessarily true but a valid point. People are basically lazy and Putah or the Yuba are close enough to satisfy the itch to fish without too much drive time. It's also not realistic to have a guide that lives near Putah (Sacramento-Bay area) to make a living by guiding the McCloud or the Pit.
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Winter eats heat the way darkness swallows light. The terrors of failed power and frozen stems are stymied with fire, smoke and white ash.
I got to the creek yesterday at 7am and there were multiple cars at every pullout. Drove the the resort and fished under the bridge for a few hours, shoulder to shoulder. As I was leaving a guide pulled up with a caravan of cars behind him...must have been 10 clients. They weren’t fishing but he was showing them how and where to fish Putah.
doesnt help that just about every other river in CA is blown out.
I got to the creek yesterday at 7am and there were multiple cars at every pullout. Drove the the resort and fished under the bridge for a few hours, shoulder to shoulder. As I was leaving a guide pulled up with a caravan of cars behind him...must have been 10 clients. They weren’t fishing but he was showing them how and where to fish Putah.
doesnt help that just about every other river in CA is blown out.
I called it a day at 11am.
You can't be serious. That is absolute bull****. Is it who I (and everyone else here) think it is? That's worse than fishing the spawn.
-- Edited by mudhen on Monday 6th of May 2019 12:04:31 PM
-- Edited by mudhen on Monday 6th of May 2019 12:04:49 PM
Well, it turns out that the person in question is somebody that I’ve never seen before, a heavy set dude with a blond ponytail. Is this some club function?
This string points out the new PC reality: the fishery and creek are under continuously increasing pressure, not only from fishing, but also from habitat degradation due to wildfires, flood-level flows causing alternate rounds of heavy siltation or scouring of the streambed. This streambed instability creates reduced spawning success and poor young of year survival. Without sufficient reproduction and large fish replacement by YOY, the fishery could decline in numbers in coming years. You users of the resource have a stewardship responsibility and there have been enough posts on this Forum to know what that means.
I agree. It’s never been a secret spot, but the over exposure on social
media has turned the creek into circus. This is a very small stretch of water and it is becoming trampled and overfished. I find it ironic that the guide who posts on IG the most...sometimes several times a day...posts drone footage and advises people to only hire “professional” guides, turns around and posts a complaint about too many people on the creek. 🤦♀️