Putah Creek Fly Fishing Report

Jordan Romney, Jordan Romney Fly Fishing

Greetings, it’s been too long since I have shared a report with everyone.  Things have been extremely busy, I have returned from four months in Alaska to a busy guide schedule.  Throw in just returning from weeklong steelhead trip to British Columbia and you can understand how finding the time to get to a computer to post a report was difficult.  Stay tuned for reports on Alaska and B.C.

I returned to Putah Creek to find the water high and a big section of the terrain scorched from a fire over the summer.  Luckily the flows have dropped and stabilized resulting in some really good trout fishing.  The entire river is fishable now and the fish have settled in and are extremely grabby.  We are catching a ton of smaller fish ranging 8”-12”.  They are spunky little devils that are hard to keep on the line because of their erratic fights and jumps.  Generally Putah Creek is known for larger then average fish but the reason why I am reporting the smaller fish is because a few years ago these fish were getting hard to find.  We went through a few years where the small fish were becoming scarce which put a worry in the anglers who fished it.  Putah Creek Trout (non profit, conservation group) stepped in and worked with the wild trout program to help improve the fishery through spawning bed restoration and education to the public to leave the fish alone during the spawn.  The end result has paid off and the trout population is on the rise.   

The bigger fish are on the move from the deeper flats of the creek.  I have been seeing more fish in the 20”+ range moving into the riffles and more typical trout runs.  One of the most important things to remember when fishing Putah Creek is that it is multidimensional in how you fish it.  Sure, indicator fishing works in most places out here but if that is the only way you fish it you are not thinking outside of the box enough and you are probably missing a lot of takes or spooking a lot of fish.  The creek is very diverse in types of water you fish.  There are good spots for indicator fishing but there are even more good spots for high sticking.  There are even several spots that fish just like a spring creek with slow moving gin clear water with a lot of weed beds.  Sight fishing can be a very rewarding and challenging.  I use a dry fly with two droppers in these areas.  I know there is little hope for my dry fly to get eaten but I use it more as an indicator.  Not an indicator to tell me that fish has taken my fly but more of an indication of where my dropper nymphs are in comparison to the fish that I am sighting.  I watch for the reaction of the fish when my flies are near and the movements can be very subtle.  

I do have some openings throughout November and that will be the last month I will be guiding Putah Creek until the spring.  Putah rainbows are winter spawners and I do not guide there during that time of the year and respectfully ask anglers to follow suit.  Give George a call to set up a trip and come test your skills with me.

Cheers,

Jordan Romney