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It's been a thing since I've been fishing the Creek. It means it's legal to fish it--it's open--but the guides and fly shops are encouraging people to rest it and let the fish spawn. I've never seen any redds cordoned off and I've seen people trudge right through them. I'm off the mind that it can be fished during the spawn by a knowledgable and carful anger, but people have to be willing to leave the spawners alone, take extra care while wading, and pass up obvious opportunities.

@@abushinthewoods Thanks for the answer. Really surprised that you never saw the Redds cordoned off. That was an annual event every.spawning season during the four years that i fished it regularly. This was during the winter months though, so if you were not fishing you may not have known or seen them. I am totally gobsmacked that you have seem people wade through the Redds. The ones that I am very familiar with were always covered in really big fish in obvious spawning activity. One would have to be pretty oblivious to step in there.

We have similar plans for this coming year! Good luck and please let me know how it goes.

There are 5 parking lots along the creek 128 between Winters and just past where it 128 crosses the creek (the last one is on both sides of the road, so I guess you could say there are 6). Park in any of them and take any well-developed trail you see. It will lead you to great access points. Seriously, the trail system is really well developed and you almost can't go wrong--it will be super clear once you're there, I promise. The only lot I don't particularly like is the first paved lot from Winters (not the first dirt lot--that one is good), as there's not a ton of access from that spot. But all the other lots provide a ton of great access. Just please remember if you go out there between December 1 and March 1 that the fist are spawning. Please leave spawning fish alone (never take a fish off a redd). If you can avoid wading, that's best, but at the very least please stay well away from the redds. Good luck and please let me know how it goes!

My sense is that there is a huge amount of dispersed opportunities all over that area (I agree, it's the way to go whenever possible). E.g., I think you can camp all along the Preston Falls Trail and when I did some quick sleuthing on line it looks like you can do it by Cherry Lake as well, but I'm sure there's more than that. That said, I didn't easily find anything super clear online in 5 minutes, so I'd give the Groveland Ranger District a call and just ask them (make sure you get a campfire permit!). A 3wt is perfect for the South and Middle Fork areas, but I'd want to go at least a 4wt and maybe even a 5wt or 6wt for the Main Stem. Dry dropper is always my go-to and should be perfect. A dry would be great if there's a hatch on. Sounds like you are like me and only go to straight nymphing if you have to, and that's what I would do for sure. Good luck! Have fun and please let me know how it goes!

Ehh, forget it. I've looked around and see everyone knows about Putah Creek. Carry on.

I used either a tag nymph, like a blowtorch (I'm a creature of habit) or a pheasant tail or something similar. I don't use split shot if I can avoid it (I usually can by just using heavier flys). Lightly weighted in this context was a 2mm-3mm tungsten bead. If the water gets really shallow or you want to strip really slowly, you may have to go lighter, and of course if the water is deeper or faster you may have to go heavier. And that's with 6x. If you use thicker tippet you may have to upsize the bead to compensate for the slower sink rate. I was using maybe size 16-18 flies for the most part.

@@abushinthewoods thank you for the info!

@@otto989 You bet. Always happy to help a fellow tabby cat lover!

It's such a great fishery. Totally one of my favorites too.

Can’t wait for #2

@@jamy41 Thanks for gatekeeping PUBLIC water that you admit is already known. Spoken like a guy who had a mentor. Tisk tisk. Also, not an expert. Just a girl trying to help people enjoy themselves. Crazy that such a thing is controversial.

I am not a licensed guide so don't guide, but I'm always happy to just meet up and show people around and get shown around. You just have to promise not to axe murder me.

Hey, yeah, I got the last a couple weeks ago and am planning to start work on the master this coming summer. Email is great: abushinthewoods@gmail.com.

Aw, come on, I can't give away all my secrets!!

@ no problem! I'll just have to be more adventurous!

@@docjoe1 Thanks for understanding! And get out there! I've been trying to find new spots and it's amazing how many places there are to fish the Creek that I've never even tried. There is a remarkable amount of good water--but bring pruning sheers or a big knife or something.

That is incorrect. On two levels, actually. One, I do check the regs. Religiously. Two, those waters are open. All rivers in CA are open unless subject to special regulations. 14 CCR s 5.85. Trout Creek is not listed in the special regs, so it's open. The McCloud is only subject to special regulations between McCloud Dam and the confluence of Ladybug Creek (open all year but with gear restrictions) and between the confluence with Ladybug Creek and Lake Shasta (also open all year but gear restrictions, i.e., artificial barbless hooks only.) The special regs for the McCloud are at p. 64 of the 2024-2025 Freshwater Sport Fishing Regs. Neither the McCloud nor Trout Creek are listed in the supplement. So, yeah, open.

A dark green quilldigon and tag nymphs like a blowtorch but dark gray or black bodies with fluorescent red or orange tails on the droppers. Sizes 14-18. For the dry a size 12 CDC caddis.

I know you can hunt on the far bank for a good stretch, but I'm not sure if it's just squirrels and stuff (quail?) or if you can actually go after ducks. I keep thinking I should try it someday, maybe plunk some squirrels with a .22 or something, but then I get distracted by the fishing. ADHD is a sonofabitch.

@ Yeah fishing is a serious distraction for me as well

Oh, no! Feel better soon and get out there! I hit is for a hours today and it was wide open. As good as it gets. Take some DayQuil and get to it!

@@abushinthewoodswide open? Meaning not crowded? It always feels crowded when I go even during the week. 😢

​@@robertconrad7528 Wide open meaning the fish are biting like crazy. It is very often crowded. If you walk/bushwack a ways the crowds usually thin out pretty quickly. I've had to hunt for a spot a few times, but I've always managed to find one.

Yes, 100%. I was super selfish in the moment and a complete asshole. My goal is for it to not happen again.

Yes, so great! I should have let him fish! I need to buy him a week off just to apologize. If I were made of money I would do that today.

You're dating yourself! Kids these days, they don't get the Rush references. I remember seeing them in concert in high school with the drums spinning around and the drummer just going bananas. So awesome.

@@abushinthewoods There are bands , and then there is Rush .. they are (were) on a different level. I’ve seen them a few times. Best band on earth.

Social media works in mysterious ways! Glad you are enjoying it!

Yes, 100%. They are amazing.

I used Trident Travel to book the trip, but the actual on the ground outfitter is called Fish Partner. I stayed at their lodge in the highlands (very low frills but lovely). They have another lodge on the south eastern side of the island they use for Atlantic salmon that I didn't see. (There are other salmon lodges too, including one owned by Eric Clapton, apparently, but fishing for Atlantic salmon in Iceland is crazy expensive. The prices I heard were in the range of $4,000-$5,000 per angler, per day (!!!). Way too rich for my blood.) I think there are some independent guides on the island if you don't want to stay in just one place (lots of people driving around with rods on their cars). I also looked into DIYing it and that seems doable, but takes a lot of planning since the rivers are a beat system so you have to book the beats for the days you want, which means you have to know where you are going to be on what day. I didn't have that kind of clarity or time, so went with this option.

Whatever you want, as long as it’s single, artificial, and barbless.

For getting purchase, I don't think you can beat felt, except maybe the felt with studs. But it is also true that felt transports invasive species better than anything else, so it is important to make sure everything is clean and dry when moving from Putah so you don't transport snails. I actually have two sets of gear, one for Putah, and one for everywhere else,

Yes, a long way from Putah for sure. This was the first week of August of this year. It was way colder in Iceland than Winters at that time. I love that way of thinking about being in a spectacular place even without spectacular fishing. But man is it hard when you've used precious time off work and spent a ton of money to go on a big trip to not get anxious if you aren't catching fish (I think that's like a triple negative, so I hope you know what I mean), but it's also kind of dumb to let not catching fish ruin an otherwise amazing trip. I really tried to focus on just enjoying being there and soaking it up when it was tough, and tried to convey that with this video too.

@@abushinthewoods breaking rods on top of poor fishing had to hurt.

@@flyguy2021 Yeah, but they were both Sage rods, so, you know, super cheap. But, props to Sage, they are going to repair or replace them for $50 each. Not nothing, but better than having to buy new rods for sure. I already got the brand new replacement reels ( a Redington ($40 for a replacement) and a Sage ($65 for a replacement)).

The poison oak can absolutely be real. You can certainly mitigate your risk by staying on the main paths, avoiding areas that are covered in the stuff, and being careful, and that can be all you need to avoid it. But even knowing that, you couldn't pay me any amount of money to go out there in shorts and/or short sleeves, though I'm particularly sensitive to it. I douse myself in Tecnu as soon as I get home too, which I like to think helps.

I *think* so, but I'm not 100%.

@@abushinthewoods He didn’t get in trouble but I don’t think he encountered anyone either

@@guaporeturns9472 Yeah, it's a sparsely populated place, I'm not surprised. I also understand most law enforcement on Iceland is like, "hey, could you please stop doing that?"

@@abushinthewoods Yeah Europe in general is like that , at least all the spots I’ve visited

Well Shoot, Now I may have to go to Iceland.😊 Kim’s Husband Duane

Ha! Yeah, not many trees on the island, that's for sure. But it really is awesome.

@@abushinthewoods Yeah it’s beautiful.

Yeah, that's a huge challenge. If you can, keep them upstream of you for sure--even if you have to run downstream of them (which can be really hard to do at Putah). Getting them into soft water with side pressure is always good, but you also usually have to do a fair amount of lifting to keep them from rubbing you off on the rocks or running you around fallen branches. It's a balancing act that just takes experience to learn and even the most experienced people mess it up. I think fighting fish is one of the most overlooked skills in fly fishing. So many videos on casting, so few on fighting fish. I think there's a bit on it in Dynamic Fly Fishing, which I really like as a resource. But honestly my best advice (if you're in a position to do it) is to get a guide out on the Sac or the Yuba or the Truckee, or even Putah--somewhere where you have a good chance of hooking into some big fish--and get some lessons. Tell them you really want to work on those skills in particular. That is going to move you through the learning curve more than anything else.

Moving through the learning curve is the name of the game. And it never stops!

I've had a number of guides say that they see people loose fish all the time because they are focusing on getting the fish on the reel. So they trained me to not worry about it and just strip. (If the fish runs and puts itself on the reel, great, but if not, then just play it manually.) Counterintuitively, they say it's actually smoother and lands more fish. Now it's just habit.

@@abushinthewoods makes sense. With tightlining, I only have a little line hang so it gets on the reel fast, also thinner mono leaders can leave a nasty burn during a run.

@@Popcornbeetle Yeah, for sure. Line burn is real.

I'm sure the higher flows can be productive, but in all the years I've fished Putah I've never once gotten into one of those pods of fish. That, coupled with the challenges of wading those flows, the reduced areas of access, the poison oak, the blackberries, the heat...IMHO, it's just pretty awful. If I was getting into those fish all the time or even reliably, I might feel differently, but it's never happened for me. As for the bugs, yeah, small bugs work. But they aren't the only ones that work. That's the misconception: the only things that will produce fish are small bugs. It's just not true and I think it needlessly intimidates people away from fishing this great public water. Plus the amount of time you have to spend trying to thread those small bugs, the inability to see them on the water if you are fishing dries, the increased potential to loose fish, and the fact that you have to scale down your tippet size to get it through the hook eye...no thank you.

@@abushinthewoods I thought the same way as you did until one day in August I watched someone get repeatedly bit on a #20 Zebra midge in the evening underneath the bridge and they were huge fish . I focused on small flies the next day and could see fish actually chase down tiny mayflies from 10 ft away . In these high flows I wet Wade with a staff cautiously . There are several spots above and below the bridge and some spots at #5 that hold fish in high flows . At 1pm a mayfly bite occurs like clockwork

@@gregorymilla9213 Well, I'm always happy to learn something new. I'll give it a try and see if I'm swayed to the zebra midge side of things. Thanks for sharing that info.

Yeah, that makes sense. I'm not a Tenkara person myself, but it does seem like it would be good for that style. If you try it, please let me know how it goes.

Yes, that can be challenging there. It is often too warm for trout below Lake Solano and I think it's actually closed to fishing there anyway. There are some spots where you wouldn't have to cut through brambles or wade beyond ankle deep, but there are few and far between. There's some good access for that kind of fishing (no hacking through brambles and no higher than ankle deep wading) from the dirt lot on closest to the dam, as well as from access spot 1, at least when flows are reasonable. You could also bank fist to some degree from the second paved lot as you are headed to the damn from Winters. As for the invasives, yes, it's a huge concern. I actually have two sets of gear: one for Putah and one for everywhere else, to avoid moving those snails. As for the habitat, if you honor the voluntary closure and/or take care to avoid walking on or about redds, I think you're probably mitigation your damage to spawning grounds sufficiently. But there's no question that fishing in generally stresses fish out. I just think it's worth it and tell myself they have short memories and very limited emotional range and depth. I can't say if that's true or not, but I got with it because I would be deeply, deeply depressed if I couldn't fish.

@@abushinthewoods Thank you so much for your help!

I dunno, nobody seems to care. The drone usually tells me if I'm doing something I shouldn't be, and it's even self-aborted flights before. I've never gotten any feedback on the dam thing, so I'm not sure it's a problem. I've certainly encountered fences and barriers and signs prohibiting walking or driving to a dam, but never seen any no-drone signs or anything.

Interesting. How have you been fishing it? Heavy rig, swinging, etc.? I wonder, are you fishing early and/or late in the day? I've fished The Creek even less than even usually this summer so I honestly don't know how it's been fishing the last month and half or so, but I'm glad it's been producing for you. If you're willing to share, I'd be interested to know what you are doing. If I need to revise my opinion or advice, I will totally do that. It's a dynamic situation and I'm willing to be corrected and educated.