Just moved here from South Florida, where the flats fishing was way too easy. All I had to do was zing out a chartruese clouser and strip it close the bottom and come home with sea trout, redfish, snook, pompano, flounder. I should have taken a video of my first attempts at fishing Putah Creek. It was hilarious. I had a few flies I got from an assortment pack I bought at Walmart, B-52 size, along with some huge woolies I had left over from my large mouty bass box. If the fish could talk! What is that thing!? I soon realized that to fish this creek assumed a very steep learning curve.
On a recent trip I ran in to JT as he was coming out of the water with his state of the art equipment and his assortment of 600 flies covering every stage of every species and color of every hatch in every size. When I showed him my styrophoam box containing my 12 go to flies he took pity on me and give me a few freebees.
When I run into one of you veterans on the water, I roll up my line and watch, then ask. All my stuff and my presentation seems so cluncky. Still I've managed to catch about 25 over about six trips, 15 in one trip about two weeks ago, where the exact same riffles I had fished the week before and caught nothing, I caught 8 or 9 and missed as many. Obviously I fished on the day immediately after a release. Aside from that day, I've hooked 3 significant fish that answered the question why people keep coming back to this super-pressued stretch of water. Really big trout. The one I landed measured from the tip of my fingers past the crook of my elbow. I couldn't even tell you the name of the micoscopic thing I used to catch him. At least I know enought to stay clear of the spawning beds. I landed him quick with plenty of fight left.
What would help me the most is to find material to help me master the hatches and the flies that go with them. Is there a Putah Bible of Hatches and Flies out there? And also, the indicator, mine hits the water hard enough to make ripples. What does you standard rig look like?
And what's up with all the garbage all over the place? I don't get that.
TJC, Welcome to the forum. As for hatches, there are significant hatches of mayflies (#16-22), caddisflies (#12-16), and midges (#18 to as small as you're willing to go). Of course there are bugs outside of this range, but if you can cover these sizes, you'll be set. If you want to read material on these flies, the internet is a good source. The public library should have lots of info for you as well. For an indicator, I use a small foam or a yarn one. Try to use the smallest one that you can get away with. During the higher flows of summer you can use bigger indicators, but for now I would go small. It'll keep you from spooking the fish and help to detect subtle takes. The garbage situation is pretty bad. It's worse in the summer. I try to pack some out everytime I fish. Again, welcome and good luck.
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"Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught."
Thanks JT. So mayflies, caddisflies, and midges each have stages, color variations and sizes depending on time of year, day, or is it simpler than that? I appears that are able to recognize the hatch and its particular stage and fish accordingly. I can recognize very little in the way of bug life and basically fish blind. If you could take only ten flies at any given time to Putah, what would they be and what size? Thanks again for the help. Good idea to haul out some garbage with each trip.
One more thing. Fishing etiquette. When I come upon another fisherman, let's say fishing the hole just above me, what kind of distance should I give him?
Greg sells some flies on this website and they will give you an idea of what works. You may also want to read some of the old posts to get an idea of what works.
Welcome to the forum. There is lots of knowledgable people on this site.
Every fisherman is a little different when it comes to how much space he/she wants. Just ask them if you can fish below (or above) them? If they say it's ok, then ask how much space they would like.
It's difficult to name only ten patterns for Putah, but these are all good patterns that will catch fish: 1. Pheasant Tail nymph #16-20 2. Zebra Midge (black, red, olive) #18-22 3. Fox Poopah (tan, olive) #14-16 4. Micro Mayfly #16-20 5. Wooly Bugger (olive, black) #10-12 6. Damselfly nymph (olive) #12-14 7. Hare's Ear nymph (tan, olive) #16-20
Most of my "go to" patterns are concoctions that I've put together, so they don't really have names. If you want to find good patterns that work everywhere, I would look at John Barr's and Mike Mercer's creations. They have both come up with some real fish catchers. If you noticed, I only listed subsurface flies. That's about all I fish with on Putah. Occasionally, I'll fish a dry but usually just as an indicator. I hope this helps.
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"Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught."
If you want to be able to identify the different insects in the creek, grab a book on aquatic entomology or do a google search on the same topic. You can get a good look at the many insects and the stages in their life cycles that they're available to trout. Then you'll start to be able to recognize the various insects that inhabit the creek. It takes a lot out of the guess work of fly fishing.
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"Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught."
