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Post Info TOPIC: October 17th fishing report
Kip


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October 17th fishing report
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Hey Everybody!

I've been on this site for a couple of years but I think this is actually my first post.  Went up to Putah on the 17th - got onto the water at around 11:30 AM.  I took my girlfriend so what was supposed to be on the water at 8:00 AM didn't quite pan out - laugh all you want!  It is her 6th day on the water fly fishing and her 1st at Putah and she loved it.  It was my first day on Putah in a few years and it is as I remembered - great water everywhere.  It was overcast and we even got a little rain.  I checked the flows today but I don't think it was at 94 cfs.  I think it was lower than that on the 17th.  We fished from about 11:30 to 3 and we landed 5 fish.  Nothing to write home about - all little guys - but they were all very healthy and quite fat for their size.  I did have one on for a minute or so that was in the 14" class - looked like a football - but he did a self-release.  We we're using a mayfly emerger with a zebra midge as a dropper 12" from the mayfly.  I did not use a split shot as the water was pretty low and the riffles we were fishing were not very deep.  I thought it was pretty amazing the amount of fish that held in these small little pools on the backside flow of the "island" out of parking lot #4, I do believe - correct me if I am wrong....  Anyway - there was another guy fishing in our little stretch and he caught a couple of nice fish, as well.  One was 14" and the other was about 16".  They are most certainly in there - saw a few hogs in that long straight slow stretch cruising around.  And as luck would have it - the girlfriend caught more fish than I did!

 

Question for anybody - there are a lot of crayfish in that stream.  Has anybody had luck on crayfish patterns?  I would think some of the monsters in there would think that would be quite a meal..... 



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Kip Penniman


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I've tried some crayfish patterns such as the Circus Peanut and Sex Dungeon, both Kelly Galloup flies and haven't hooked any trophies but this is likely due to the lack of time fishing them. However, have had some healthy fish who hit the fly hard and are easy to land due to fishing 2-3x. I find that's it's browns that are a bit more predatory and eat crayfish even when small say 13-15" but rainbows don't seem to be as aggressive in their food. Those bigger Putah fish that hang in Solano for part of the year likely have such a different diet than an average river rainbow so my advice is try everything.

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Leland Fly Fishing Ranch 24120 Arnold Dr. Sonoma, CA 95476



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Hi Kip,

I too noticed some monster crayfish, darn near looked like lobsters.  I'd love to see the fish that would eat those.

 

Trouite



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Here's a tip I learned from Kelly Galloup but failed to use it the other day on Putah when fishing a large streamer... Most people strip streamers by pulling line over their stripping finger, taking their hand off the line and grabbing it again. Well, most often you'll get your strike during the pause while your hand is off the line and it's just draped over your stripping finger. You feel a tug, it slides past your finger and the fish is gone. The fish grabbed the fly violently but no hook penetrated and it spit the fly immediately. If however, you had contact with the line and didn't allow it to move through the guides you likely would have got a hook to penetrate its mouth. Kelly's tip is to move the rod tip with a pinched finger on the line and cork, and then pull the slack from the movement of the rod tip with your other hand. This way you're always in contact with the line ready for the grab. The fly I was using was about 4 inches.

www.slideinn.com/store/product_info.php
In tan, looks just like a crawfish.

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Leland Fly Fishing Ranch 24120 Arnold Dr. Sonoma, CA 95476



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Play around with a crawfish pattern. Don't tie it too big. Fish like cares with smaller pinchers. That's why you see giant crawfish and not smaller ones. Dead drifting a craw pattern works there if you figure out the pattern. It's not always size 18-22 flies 😁

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Kip


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Thanks for the tips, everybody! I'm thinking I would try it just to see. I do have some smaller sized in the box I was thinking about throwing out there. I read articles in my fly fishing magazines that would indicate it might be worth a shot but Putah Creek is.......Putah Creek. Some of those big craw daddy's might be better off drizzled with clarified butter!! Seriously.....I saw one that was every bit of 5" from tip of the head to tail. I don't see them like that too often except occasionally in Tahoe....

I'm thinking about going up again soon - maybe mid week next week so I'll give another report.

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Kip Penniman


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HI Everyone- so-- just wondering, when you are fishing a crawfish pattern, do you have to use sinking line or a sink tip? Or can I just use my usual floating line with that kind of pattern? I finally got myself a 5-wt for Putah after borrowing one for years so I'm looking forward to going up there soon.

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Ty


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Prettyfly, it all depends on the depth of water you are working in.  In these flows your floating line should be fine. 



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You can dead drift it under an indicator

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Rossflyguy wrote:

You can dead drift it under an indicator


 We call that the "slop rig" and it works, especially from a drift boat.



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Leland Fly Fishing Ranch 24120 Arnold Dr. Sonoma, CA 95476



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thinking of going to Putah tomorrow are the fish on redds now and if so are the redds along the hole stretch or just up by the bridge and dam

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Yes there are fish on redds but through out the creek. There are several fish still holding in areas that hasn't started doing there thing. The spawning areas are marked for the most part. If you see a fish in less then 2 ft of water odds are they are spawning there.

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Berryessie wrote:

 If you see a fish in less then 2 ft of water odds are they are spawning there.


 That brought back memories and I chuckled.  I was doing a survey at Deer sign and had a guy come sloshing into the bed area and spooked all of the spawners into the hole below.  Not seeing any fish on the beds, he moved down to the hole that was now full of fish and began sight casting.  He contended that since they were not on the beds they were not spawners.  After watching him actively fish for spawners multiple years in a row, my guess is he is fishing the same place this weekend.  SSS.

 

If you see fish, odds are they are spawning.



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lightfoot wrote:
Berryessie wrote:

 If you see a fish in less then 2 ft of water odds are they are spawning there.


 That brought back memories and I chuckled.  I was doing a survey at Deer sign and had a guy come sloshing into the bed area and spooked all of the spawners into the hole below.  Not seeing any fish on the beds, he moved down to the hole that was now full of fish and began sight casting.  He contended that since they were not on the beds they were not spawners.  After watching him actively fish for spawners multiple years in a row, my guess is he is fishing the same place this weekend.  SSS.

 

If you see fish, odds are they are spawning.


 100% correct. That's why I don't fish it from Nov to Feb. Why try to catch big fish that are so tired to put up a fight?



-- Edited by Rossflyguy on Friday 20th of November 2015 07:10:17 AM

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Please understand that my ? was so I could stay away from the redds and spawning fish not to hunt them

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Frank trout we are all on your side and didn't take that as you wanting to find the spammers.

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