I use instagram and follow a local guide. He moves from the lower Yuba to Putah and back. I've noticed that he is posting constant images of guys with large bows almost daily. If the river were 30 miles long and had low pressure, that would be one thing but this place is going to crush under pressure. The online term is 'Hot Spotting' - blowing a place up with social media posts. Do guides need to get a permit to do business on Putah? Has anyone considered no allowing guides to use Putah as a place of business? What's ironic was the fact that this guy posted a video that he took of another guy fishing (that apparently guides elsewhere) and was said that he had no right to be there because he didn't know how to fish Putah.
I am posting MY opinion and do not represent any other group. Do we know if posting big fish pictures is adversely affecting the fish? - unlikely. Is it bringing more pressure to a very small, already highly pressured fishery ?- undoubtedly. MY impression is that’s the ultimate goal of the poster if they are making money from the process. There is no current restriction to guiding on Putah Creek but one would hope that guides would be more sensitive to this issue (many already are or at least state so on their websites). I’m not sure if there is a solution to this age old issue in the fishing community. You can’t fault others who see pictures that Rob posts and decide to target Putah over other water. After they cannot find a run without another fisher(wo)man (even B water is routinely taken nowadays), they may decide the experience is so degraded that they will be dissuaded to return. In the end, the community will seek a balance. Props to those (like Rob, Off the Hook, PCT) who have been an advocate of the voluntary closure during the spawn… Maybe he’ll eventually realize that hot spotting Putah the rest of the year isn’t doing the fishery and the rest of the community any service and he will self-correct. Time will tell.
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definitely hard to miss the big pimping going on at the creek, it's simply all about him making money, that's it.
as far as I can tell, no laws have been broken, so while the etiquette and tact may be lacking from a bird's eye view, there's not much anyone of us can do. someone could talk to Fish and Game and see if there is anyway to get guiding restricted, I personally don't see a reason to go that far (yet). It's a small world in our our sport and you only have one reputation, this guide (like all others) will need to decide what reputation he wants. I personally have never met or encountered him on the creek, I'd be much more interested in his interactions and behavior on the water than online posts.
Some guides are are really nice helpful ambassadors of our sport and others are alpha a-holes,
just like any other part of our society.
-- Edited by DeckDog on Wednesday 13th of April 2022 11:36:18 PM
My worst guide experience one Putah was in 1990 or 91 when I first started flyfishing and was a spawn fisherman. Guide name omitted on purpose.
I was above the bridge fishing the south side of the island with the rest of the army. Said guide came down off the trail with his client and crossed well below the tailout while explaining to his client the importance of not walking on spawning gravel and redds. Late in the evening after everyone had bailed I was sitting above the creek and watched the guide and client wade right through the middle of the tailout to leave. The client expressed concern about walking on redds and the spawning gravel. The guides response was, and I quote "it's ok, everybody is gone".
I feel it would be best for the fishery if they just shut the creek down for the spawn, (huge can of worms opening up, yeah yeah I get it) but to each their own. Being ethical about it certainly helps.
blowing a place up with social media posts
I started flyfishing in 1990. I took new rod in hand and hiked into what used to be called the staircase but what I believe is now called the guide hole. I had been fishing it all season with bait and never saw anybody. When i got there on the opener of fly season there were 6 people on that little section.
What brough on the troves of people on the lower yuba? I started fishing it in 1990 and seldom saw more than a few other people fishing on any given weekend. By the time I quit fishing the Yuba in 1995 it was a zoo. Not a lot of social media back then. Maybe I screwed up and caught fish while somebody else was watching? Talked too much at the fly shop? Helped out too many people that were struggling to catch a fish there? Granted I never heard of anybody else floating the narrows.
The Pit got crowded as well. How's the truckee, owens etc etc etc.?
