I couldn't go out of town this weekend because of work, but I managed to make it to the creek this morning. I did something that I normally don't do. I got up at the crack of dawn to fish. Usually I get there in the late morning or early afternoon. It's a different place that early in the morning. I started off swinging a #16 black leech. I landed quite a few fish on that fly. I used it until there wasn't much left of the fly. Then I switched to a brown one which produced a few more fish. A #16 olive Fox Poopah, #18 micromay, and a #22 black midge also worked well. I was using my 3 wt as the current wasn't very strong in the area I was fishing. It was a total blast!
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"Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught."
JT, you seem to bust out the 3 and 4 weight quite often out there. Are they stiff enough to swing streamer type flies and handle the bigger putah fish? I usually do just the opposite and go up to my faster six weight this time of year. I wasn't able to make it out at all this weekend or next. However I am going to leverage some time off and go back up to Burney soon. Peace, Cole.
When fishing the faster water and in strong winds, I use my 5 wt. Fighting big fish in fast water could be extremely difficult with a 3 wt. In slow water, however, the 3 wt is awesome. I've landed fish up to 23" with it. I grew up fishing ultralight spinning rods, so I really like the feel of a lighter rod. As far as swinging streamers, I use small ones. The biggest I've thrown with a 3 wt is #12 wooly bugger. The rod handles those just fine.
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"Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught."
Swinging is a technique that you can use when fishing streamers and wet flies. You cast across the current and let the fly "swing" across the current and down stream. The technique is similar to that of drifting bait through runs on the creek. You don't need an indicator using this technique. There's no mistake when the fish grab your fly.
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"Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught."
I should clarify the post on swinging. Many people let their fly swing out at the end of their drift when indicator fishing. This can produce lots of strikes. The swinging in the post above refers to streamer fishing, though.
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"Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught."
yeah letting your indicator, and shot rig hang at the end for a bit causes the nymphs to rise, often causing fish to bite HARD. No matter what Im using whether nymph or streamer, I always let it hang for a second or two directly below me.
Swinging is the way to go for half pounders on the lower american.
I swing fox's poopahs at putah creek all the time. Dead drift then swing it up and across.
Thanks JT and superflyguy for the advice. I tried the technique this past week and caught 4 fish or so doing just that, not with streamers just typical putah nymphs.
