putah's biggest fish???

shon42073 · Senior Member

putah's biggest fish???

chemdoc · Senior Member

If you are including browns, a friend and fishing buddy of mine landed a 29 inch brown last winter.

Phil

-- Edited by chemdoc at 18:16, 2006-10-24

lightfoot · Senior Member

I landed two 26" Rainbows on the same day back in the early 90's. The second fish was next to a fish that would have gone well over 30". They were holding tight to shore in some thin water.

I hooked a fish in the mid 90's that went over 30" while fishing below the upper resort (thousand trails at the time). The fish was in some big slow water and had nowhere to go. Finally wraped my up on some sticks after 15 minutes or so. I waded out to unsnag him in about 4 feet of water . It wasn't until then that I actually saw the fish and knew how big it was. Didn't land that one either.

Probably close to 30 years ago I was fishing with my brother at Lake Solano out of an old Aluminum boat. I hooked a German Brown on a gob of redworms that would have gone over 30". When I got it up to the boat my brother refused to grab it. I'll never forget the comment, "%^&* you, look at those teeth " . So much for being a tuff guy on leave from the Army lmao .

Thats it for what I know would clear 30". I've hooked a lot of other fish that may have been close but it's tuff to land them with all the brush, rocks, moss ect ect.

bono · Master Fly Fishing Guide

The 30" mark is a tough one to pass on Putah.The largest fish that I had landed on the creek was a very hot and healthy 30"female rainbow in the high water flows of April about 6 years ago.I also have had fish hooked but never landed that were 30" plus but with the same result as everybody else,and have always heard of these crazy stories of the 6 year old kid landing a 15# rainbow from the bridge at lake Solano on an anchovie and a surf rod.Or the one about a guy and his girlfriend while picnicing near the resort noticed a couple of trophey german browns feeding on cheetos that happened to blow into the water.So as the story goes he did the obvious thing and slapped of those tasty little tidbits on a hook and PRESTO!! one landed fish of a lifetime,I guess I have been using the wrong flies this whole time!!

jeff webb · Member

5 years ago I landed a 27.75 male, which I was able to photograph down across from the camp ground at the restort. To date that is the largest rainbow I've ever landed. This year in Idaho I landed a 31 inch bull trout on a dry. I was told by my guide that it was very unusual for these fish to take drys.

rich · Veteran Member

I've caught a few 26" fish but nothing larger. During the really high flows of last winter I landed some really nice fish. I did hook the same fish several times during the high flows but never landed it. It looked like it would be in the 30" range. BTW, anyone fishing the steelhead up on the American ?

lightfoot · Senior Member

rich wrote:

I've caught a few 26" fish but nothing larger. During the really high flows of last winter I landed some really nice fish. I did hook the same fish several times during the high flows but never landed it. It looked like it would be in the 30" range. BTW, anyone fishing the steelhead up on the American ?

All reports I've seen for steelies on the American is they are running late. Same thing for the Feather. Dosn't mean they arn't there but I'd suspect not many. Weather changes are coming

Otter · Senior Member

A post from the past. I'm bringing my surf rod with some anchovies on opening day.

AC22 · Senior Member

caught a 4 ft sand shark while sturgeon fishing in the SF bay....that was a fun ride :)

nothing to do with trout...jsut a wild story L:)

-- Edited by AC22 at 22:05, 2008-03-12

Black Cloud · Senior Member

About four years ago I caught a 26" rainbow below the bridge. It was a off and on rain day in Feb. I had caught about 4 or 5 fish all about 10 to 12 inches. When the rain started again my friend left and I stayed to fish the run he was in. On my second pass at the end of the swing I felt that unmistakable head shake then a nice short run. There is a pic of the fish on one of my other post. The other big fish that I've seen was a brown on a stringer at the forks to Solono lake. It was May or June and a kid told me he was fishing for catfish with an anchovie. I asked if he had caught anything and he pulled up a stringer with 8 or 9 lb brown. I don't think it was 30' but it was close.

mx19 · Senior Member

27" rainbow 2 years ago.It was very hard to hold in the water �and tape by my self..If I hand a friend to help Iam pretty sure it would of been close to that 30" mark..whats a guy to do when he fishes solo....I did the best I could with out laying it on the ground and .Iam a keep the fish in the water all the time kind a guy....� biggest brown was 22"

brian clemens · Senior Member

i caught my 27 1/2" bow january 17th (tape measured), as well as hooking into 4 fish in the 22-25" range from the same pool all withing an hour, using a glo bug/pupah combo. which is my go to combo during the fall winter time. he was spawned out, but was holding about 25 ft below some redds in about 6ft of water, so he was definitly on the hunt for some food, had some big large shoulders on him, and some weight too. this is when we hard some rain and the water was semi cloudy about 2-3 ft vis. even though he was spawned out he still gave me a great fight. the pic of this moster is in the putah photo album. had this monster been healthy i know i would never had a chance. i put my rod and tippet to its limit on this fish that day, he brought me downstream 50-60 yrds or so from where i hooked him. ill never forget this fight. the headshakes from this beast where impressive, something that i have never felt before and will never forget, he told me who was large and in charge, these headshakes were so bad ars that i could feel them through my whole body. i never gripped my rod so hard ever. man i cant wait to handle a fish like that at full strength, just to feel what they can do.

jamesjw55 · Member

My biggest fish to date out of Putah was 28"�buck rainbow�with a 18.5" girth. Applying an approximate weight formula, I estimated the fish to be around 12 pounds. He put up a hell of a fight...big head shakes, bulldogging,�long�upstream and downstream runs,�a few big jumps�with sporadic charges...awesome, healthy migratory�fish that bent my 7-weight to the butt at times!�I caught him�9 years ago in December or early January�out of the first deep pool below the bridge.��He fell victim to Ernie's two-tone, a bead head caddis immitation that is killer on the Lower Sac during the spring and summer. I haven't caught anything nearly this big since, but have landed a few in the 23-25" range that weighed between 5 and 7 pounds. I've never touched a brown in Putah (that I know of), but there's always next time. Putah is a truly amazing fishery and I feel very fortunate to have it so close to home.

Tight lines,

James

mx19 · Senior Member

I caught a small child at the bottom of the stair case ..do kids count..

brian clemens · Senior Member

was it of legal size, and was it legally hooked.

ChucktheDuck · Senior Member

I saw a brown down by access 5 this fall that could have eaten that child like a #22 midge!! I noticed him on multiple occasions chilling in the same spot each time. The spot was open enough that you could see the fish when you walked by if you were looking, but you couldn't get a fly anywhere near him without his knowing you were there. Talk about unfair!!!
chuck

shon42073 · Senior Member

Chuck, I saw a huge brown at #5 about 2 years ago. Probably was about 30". Maybe it was the same fish. It would not�even look at anything i tried that day.

ChucktheDuck · Senior Member

Yeah that is the same experience I had with this fish. There was a nice BWO hatch that day and I watched the fish for about 1/2 an hour eating emergers as they left the rocks and were funneled into his lie. The fish would move up to 4ft away to eat a darn mayfly nymph but the only time I could get him to move he was moving AWAY from my fly!!! The hilarious thing is that I got down on my belly and crawled through the grass/bushes to get right up next to him and make a cast, but after repeated presentations without a look I got frustrated and stood up and the fish didn't even budge. He probably knew I was there all along!
chuck