Fishing on Putah can be a bit tricky for a novice angler. One of the most preferred ways to fish Putah is with nymph set ups and very small flies like beatis imitations and midge patterns. Either under an indicator or tight line Euro nymphing can both produce fish in the likely looking riffles and runs. However, there’s also a ton of slow water and big pond-like pools on Putah that can hold feeding fish at certain times of the year. I’ve found it’s best to fish these stretches with small streamers like sculpin patterns and leaches. You can roll cast a single hand rod far enough to cover most pools but a small switch rod can really come in handy for some of the spots where you need to cast a bit further to really cover the waters. Fishing single or double nymph set ups on a floating line with long leader and slowly twitching them through the slow water can also produce fish.
Of course the creek really comes to life if there is a hatch. A 4 or 5 weight rod, stealthy colored line, long leader and thin tippet with a small beatis or EC caddis and it can be lights out if you catch it right. This past March after another CalTrout meeting at UC Davis, Pat Samuel, the new Bay Area region manager and I caught just such an evening. We left Davis after our meeting and got out around 3:30 hoping to catch an evening session. It was an overcast day with light rains off and on. We spent the first hour or so checking out a couple spots and nymphing some likely looking water. A little rain squall came through and we changed spots heading up river a bit. As soon as the rain cleared out the fish started to rise. I started seeing some size 14 Glossosoma caddis fluttering around and dipping on the water. Pat switched over first to a classic Elk Hair Caddis and it wasn’t too long until I looked down and he was hooked up on a nice rainbow. We took turns sticking fish for a couple hours. Once the sun went down over the horizon line and the temps dropped just a few degrees the bugs disappeared and the fish went down. We slapped a couple fives over a cold drink in the parking lot then headed down to Winters for a nice meal. Putah Creek is definitely worth a stop. Especially when all the coastal waters are blown out, it’s too cold to bass fish, and the inclement weather can bring out some nice hatches!
Cheers,
Michael E. Wier
Spot Check
continued