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Piru River offers best tailwater fishing in Southern California
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Pyramid Rock at the top of catch and release section
The Middle Piru River features one of the best tailwaters in Southern California. Here the angler can fish a one and one-half mile section of well-managed creek designated as a catch-and-release fishery within an hour of downtown L.A.
Location of Catch and Release Section
This section of river is accessed from the parking lot at Frenchman’s Flats by walking along the old Highway 99 North (closed to vehicle traffic) toward the Pyramid Lake Dam. The catch-and-release section begins above the “concrete dam”, an obvious feature where the old roadway has created a barrier. The river is catch-and-release only from this point upstream to “Big Bridge” beneath Pyramid Rock and the Pyramid Lake Dam.
Best Tailwater Fishing in Southern California
This is a quality tailwater thanks, in large part, to the Sierra Pacific Flyfishers who adopted this section of creek in 1985. They undertook a serious river restoration effort, and, in 1990, the section of creek was designated a catch-and-release wild trout stream by the California Department of Fish and Game.
The Day Fire, which burned more than 162,000 acres in the Los Padres National Forest in 2006, did impact the fishing, but the area is recovering nicely.
Fishing Regulations for Tailwater on Middle Piru
It is not legal to trespass or fish above “Big Bridge,” but it is interesting to see both Pyramid Dam and the namesake Pyramid Rock, which was the result of blasting during the construction of Highway 99 in 1933.
The current regulations mandate that this stretch of water, which is defined in the regulations as “From the bridge approximately 300 yards below Pyramid Lake to the falls about 1/2 mile above the old Highway 99 bridge”, may be fished all year provided the angler uses only artificial lures (and flies) with barbless hooks.
More Information: California's Native Trout
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