Putah Creek Trout
Working to protect and improve the wild trout fishery in Putah Creek
2024 Putah Creek Cleanup
Saturday September 21, 2024 8:30 – 12pm
Please consider joining us as a service to the resource that we all enjoy. We will be focusing on the Putah Creek Interdam Reach. We will also be replacing some signage.
Meet at Fishing Access 5 by 8:30 am
Particulars:
- Please bring a pair of sturdy gloves. Vinyl gloves will also be available
- 5-gallon buckets are useful for holding collected trash or recyclables
- Water and light snacks will be provided. Dress for heat
- Waiver form signing required
- Under 16 need parental permission
- Up to 35 volunteers needed
- Bring power screw driver with 1/4 inch socket/ Philips screw driver bit if you have one
Hope to see you there!
Steve Karr, PhD
Chairman of the Board
Putah Creek Trout
2020 Spawn Season Closure SUrvey REsults are in!
The results of the 2020 Spawn Season Closure Survey have been tabulated and analyzed. We were very pleased to receive 235 responses. Thank you all who participated and advertised the survey!
Read MorePCT Board: Gary Chang, MD
PCT welcomes back one of its founding members and former director – Dr. Gary Chang. Gary help form and lead Putah Creek Trout starting in 2007 along with other concerned fisherman. Here is a bit more about Gary.
Sat 9/20/2025 Annual Coastal Cleanup at Putah Creek
Join us to support your home water tangibly!
Sign-up HERE
PCT will be hosting the Putah Creek Interdam Clean-Up day, coinciding with the annual Coastal Cleanup efforts. This is a great way to contribute your time and effort for the benefit of the creek and its visitors. We are likely to be joined by Fisheries Biologist Matt Wong of CDFW Region 3, who will be able to answer any questions you may have about the fishery.
In the past, we have helped remove truckloads of debris, including appliances, tires, and pieces of cars, carelessly littering the banks and sometimes directly in the stream.
Here are some details:
When: Saturday, September 20, 2025
Where: Meet at Fishing access 5 parking lot (aka Putah Creek Trailhead) ~ 8:30 am
We anticipate the event lasting ~ 4 hours in total, but you do not need to participate all 4 hours
We recommend bringing:
- Sturdy gloves
- 5-gallon bucket
- Sunscreen
We will have available:
- Water and snacks
- Vinal gloves
- Garbage bags
Participants must sign a waiver form and then be assigned to a location to focus on. Further details will be reviewed that morning.
< 16y will require parent permission.
For further information, contact:
Steve Karr, PhD
Chairman of the Board
Putah Creek Trout
(530)-400-1171 (cell)
Creek Cleanup 2024: Volunteers Make a Difference
Thanks to all of the volunteers who spent a few hours on the creek to remove multiple bags and a truck full of old drip irrigation tubing! Our home water is now just a bit better for the effort!
It was a beautiful day on the creek starting off with homemade pumpkin bread passed around. After a quick orientation meeting, the teams spread out to their assigned sections to gather the trash. Some interesting items of trash were collected including a hub cap and a computer. Mostly, it was bottles, plastic, and paper that were removed.
A truck load of irrigation tubing that was no longer functional due to fire and mowing was removed from Fishing Access 4.
Thanks again for our volunteers!
Mark your calendar for next year – September 20, 2025
PCT Fund Raising Auction & Raffle Saturday April 20, 2024 10am – 1pm
Support PCT’s stewardship work and possibly find a bargain for yourself. Items are from the estate of Keith Bigelow, the former Webmaster.
4/1/23 ALERT: HWY 128 CLOSED
CalTrans reports the closure of SR 128 directly impacting access to the Interdam Reach for fishing and other activities. No through traffic is allowed from the Solano/Yolo county line to the West (around Monticello Dam) and at Pleasant Valley Rd to the East.
The closure is due to work to repair a washout undercutting the road near FA#3
This will obviously impact our ability to access the Putah Creek IDR until the road work has been completed. As of 4/5/23, no ETA for the completion of that work is known.
2022 Putah Creek IDR Cleanup Day Success!
It was a beautiful day to get out and do some GOOD!
Thank you to the almost 30 volunteers who came out to spruce up our home water. It was great to meet new faces and introduce them to the Interdam Reach. Some larger items such as tires, an 80 gallon steel drum, and a chair were removed from the riparian area. Steve Karr reported that the cleanup netted approximately 800 pounds of garbage and 100 pounds of recyclables.
As they say, many hands make the work easy and we wrapped up with three hours. Continue to do your part to keep the creek clean –
- Pack out your trash (including your line cuttings)
- Consider grabbing some trash on your hike back to your vehicle
- If it’s in the creek – move it onto the bank to make it easier to remove later
- let us know if there are larger items that need to be removed
PCT Now Hosting Forum
PCT is now hosting the Putah Creek Fly Fishing Forum
The passing of Keith Bigelow left the Putah Creek Fly Fishing Forum without an administrator. The forum began years ago after a discussion with Greg Bonovich:
“Keith was the reason I began this website. We met years ago and he was a client of mine, he asked if I had a website dedicated to the creek and at the time I did not. He offered his expertise and I accepted As I’m about as computer illiterate as a 3 year old. For the most part Keith set up and ran this site for little or no money. The vision quickly turned into a catalyst for information important to Putah Creek instead of an advertising tool for my guiding business . It has brought together a great group of people that care a lot about the health and well being of our creek. Keith was probably the kindest most humble person I’ve ever met. Every time we spoke I was reminded of the person that I should strive more to be.”
– Greg Bonovich posted on forum November 9, 2020
The forum had gone fallow for a bit but will now be hosted by PCT as a service to the community. We are hoping that it will regain some of its energy as we all come out of the Covid doldrums. Please offer suggestions about how PCT can best host this resource and engage our community with the common purpose to protect and enhance the resource. Go post some good tips or learn about how the fishing has trended over the years.
New Signs and Angler Survey Boxes
October 23, 2021: A small band of volunteers worked with CDFW area leaders to replace signage and Angler Survey Boxes
2021 is going out with a bang as Putah Creek Trout volunteers worked to place new and replace out of date regulation signage as well as mud snail warning signs throughout the Interdam Reach. A HUGE shout out to Dave Jepma and Mike Glazeski as they did much of the actual placement!
PCT volunteers met with Heritage and Wild Trout Program statewide manager Farhat Bajjalia and CDFW Region 3 Biologist Ryan Watanabe at FA5 and immediately got to work. The group placed new and replaced old angler survey boxes.
It was hard but rewarding work. Next time you’re out on the creek, check them out (and fill out those surveys)!
PCT VOLUNTEER: MIKE GLAZESKI
Mike is amongst a handful of dedicated volunteers that can be counted on to devote time and energy to the cause. Thank you Mike for all of your past and future efforts!
Let’s learn a bit more from Mike in his own words:
I am originally from Massachusetts where I started fly fishing in my early teens. I came to California when I was 19 in the U.S. Navy and have lived here ever since. My wife and I moved to Northern California when I was accepted at the University of California, Berkeley in 1975 and where I first learned of (and started fishing at) Putah Creek in 1976. The creek has been a refuge for me ever since and I have a deep rooted fondness for it.
I retired in 2016 from simultaneous careers as an optometrist in an ophthalmological practice in Alameda, an Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of California, School of Optometry and as a Commander in the Medical Service Corps of the United States Navy.
Now that I have more free time, I enjoy participating in volunteer efforts with Putah Creek Trout. From Steve Karr’s side channel hydrological surveys, to the attempts to lay gravel to improve the breeding areas, to the annual stream side clean-up events, for me it is a way of giving back to a place that I have long enjoyed and an opportunity to meet others who also care for this very special resource.
Thanks again Mike… See you at the next volunteer opportunity!
2021 Cleanup Day Success!
Thanks to a wonderful group of volunteers, the 2021 Interdam Putah Creek Cleanup Day was a complete success!
Steve Karr reported:
“We had 24 volunteers clean 3.5 miles of the Creek on Saturday. We collected 150 lbs of recyclables and filled the 10 yd dumpster with an impressive 1800 lbs of trash including a torn down shed and other construction materials that had been illegally dumped near Fishing Access 2 and Fishing Access 1. Special thanks go to our site team leaders Shawn, Son, Dylan, Dave, Mike, and Richard Loft. Special thanks to Charlie Schneider of the California Council of Trout Unlimited and Roger Wachtler of the John Muir East Bay Chapter of Trout Unlimited for their help in volunteer recruitment. Special thanks to Tom Robinson and Fly Fishers of Davis for providing tables and 5 gallon buckets.”
It was great to get back together after the long epidemic hiatus. More hands-on volunteer opportunities are coming soon. See you then!
Putah Creek Trout 