Beta

GuidedFloats is in beta. The full site launches March 1, 2027. The mobile app follows.

Guides: claim before March 1, 2027 and your first full season of Premium is free. Claim your founding spot →

Log in List your guide serviceFor guides
Home › Waters › California › Piru Creek
Tailwater · Ventura County, southern California, the reach below Santa Felicia Dam and Lake Piru running down toward the Santa Clara River · California

Piru Creek Fishing Guides

A genuine southern California trout tailwater below Santa Felicia Dam, cold enough to hold wild rainbows within an hour of Los Angeles.

An angler swinging a two-handed rod on a forested Pacific Northwest river
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Piru Creek

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

No guides listed yet

Guide or outfit this water? Create your profile. Listing is free, the commission is 10% or 7% with a premium profile, and premium profiles list first on this water.

About the Piru Creek

Southern California is not supposed to have trout water an hour from Los Angeles, which is precisely what makes lower Piru Creek interesting. The creek drains the back side of the Transverse Ranges, is impounded at Lake Piru by Santa Felicia Dam, and below that dam it becomes something genuinely unusual for the region: a cold, regulated, year-round flowing stream in country that is otherwise chaparral and dry wash. The reach below the dam holds wild rainbow trout, is managed under special regulations, and is fished by a small and fairly devoted group of anglers who are willing to hike into a canyon to get at it.

This is a real tailwater and it behaves like one. Releases from Santa Felicia keep water moving and temperatures down through months when every unregulated stream nearby has gone dry or lethal, and the trout are concentrated in the pools, pocket water and undercut banks of the canyon. The fish are not large by Rocky Mountain standards and nobody should come here expecting them to be. What they are is wild, wary and living in a place they have no business being, which is most of the appeal. Below the trout water, as the creek warms toward the Santa Clara River, largemouth and smallmouth bass, channel catfish and bluegill take over. Access requires walking, and the canyon is hot and exposed in summer.

The gauge below the dam publishes discharge, stage and reservoir-related stage, but no water temperature. Read the discharge trace as a release schedule rather than a weather report. A steady flow means the reach is fishable and the trout are distributed normally; a flat trace near zero means releases have stopped and the creek is dropping into disconnected pools, which is both poor fishing and hard on the fish. Check it before driving out.

This water needs a real photo

The photo at the top of this page is not Piru Creek.

It is a regional stand-in, honestly captioned but generic — we will not put a name to a river we cannot prove. Send us a photograph you took here and it replaces the stand-in, with your credit on it.

Add a photo of this water See the badges

Pioneer badgeUnclaimed

Add a photo of this water

Landscape, not fish — the water itself. Reviewed by hand before it appears. The first one published here earns the Pioneer badge.

Never published. It is how the badge is held for you until member accounts open.

Posting to Piru Creek.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. Landscape orientation looks best at the top of the page. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name printed under the photo and on your badge. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Fished this water? Add a photo

Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Piru Creek.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Access

Frenchmans Flat, Highway 5 corridor - the standard walk-in access to the upper canyon.
Santa Felicia Dam outlet area - the top of the regulated reach below Lake Piru.
Lake Piru Recreation Area - developed access to the reservoir and the dam vicinity.
Piru Canyon Road pullouts - roadside access to the middle reach.
Blue Point campground area - access to the canyon water in the national forest.
Route 126 crossing at Piru - bank access on the warmwater lower creek.
Santa Clara River confluence - the lowest access, warmwater species only.

Seasons

Spring: the best flows and the strongest trout fishing of the year in the canyon reach.
Summer: hot and exposed, with fishing early and late and releases determining whether it is worth the walk.
Fall: cooling temperatures and steadier releases make for good conditions again in the canyon.
Winter: cold and often the most reliable flows, with storms occasionally blowing the creek out entirely.

From the water

No logged trips yet. Be the first to put this water on your map.

Log this water

Fished it or cleaned it? Log in or create a free account to log a trip with photos and earn the waterway badge.

Questions

What is the current flow on the Piru Creek?

As of Sep 17, 4:45 am, the USGS gauge PIRU CREEK BELOW SANTA FELICIA DAM CA reads 349 cfs. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Piru Creek?

Anglers target Bluegill, Channel Catfish, Common Carp, Largemouth Bass, Rainbow Trout, Smallmouth Bass on the Piru Creek in California.

Where can you access the Piru Creek?

Frenchmans Flat, Highway 5 corridor - the standard walk-in access to the upper canyon. Santa Felicia Dam outlet area - the top of the regulated reach below Lake Piru. Lake Piru Recreation Area - developed access to the reservoir and the dam vicinity. Piru Canyon Road pullouts - roadside access to the middle reach. Blue Point campground area - access to the canyon water in the national forest. Route 126 crossing at Piru - bank access on the warmwater lower creek. Santa Clara River confluence - the lowest access, warmwater species only.

When is the best time to fish the Piru Creek?

Spring: the best flows and the strongest trout fishing of the year in the canyon reach. Summer: hot and exposed, with fishing early and late and releases determining whether it is worth the walk. Fall: cooling temperatures and steadier releases make for good conditions again in the canyon. Winter: cold and often the most reliable flows, with storms occasionally blowing the creek out entirely.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Piru Creek?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the California agency site: https://wildlife.ca.gov/Regulations