Haven't been to putah in almost 2 months, So I gave it a try this morning. Landed 2 rainbows about 12 inchers both were good healthy wild fish. I had to use a san juan worm and a LOT of shot to get down. The river is more siuted to spinning gear with the high flows. Near access 4 i sat down to take a break and sat about 3 feet from a rattlesnake, It seemed to be asleep, I thought it was dead until I started poking it with a stick. So be careful.
I've had to use quite a bit of weight myself lately. I fished the creek Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I landed a few fish--all on midges. A #20 olive midge took a couple, and a #22 black midge took a few more. I hooked some fish on a #10 wooly bugger. I managed to hook a couple really nice fish that I wasn't able to land. One broke me off when my line got tangled around my tippet spool holder. Another threw the hook when he reentered the water after jumping. The flows fluctuated a little from about 620 to about 550 cfs. All three days were really nice as far as weather goes. It seemed ideal for insect activity but I didn't see too many insects during the day. As usual there were tons of midges but few caddis and mayflies. Just before dark (the last 15 minutes or so) the fish have been going nuts on the surface. I had a BIG fish slam my fly in a back eddy, but I got too excited and yanked the fly out of his mouth. The takes were viscious which leads me to believe they were taking emergers or egg-laying insects. It was too dark to tell, though.
-- Edited by JT at 22:03, 2007-06-03
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"Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught."
Something I saw at the creek this past weekend that I thought was rather funny looking. I was fishing the big pool between access 2 and 3 and at the head of the pool a deer came out of the bushes on the far bank, It gingerly started walking in the water and then it went all the way in and started swimming downstream, First time I have ever seen a deer swimming, She didnt seem to be a very good swimmer. It just swam downstream the length of the pool then got out and walked into the trees. Maybe the deer was trying to get away from something, Maybe a mountain lion ?
Kinda hard to say if there's many. You can bet there's some. Seems like the big cats are the most elusive animals out there. I've seen 2 bobcats in the last 6 years on the creek both late in the evening. I never worry about the bobcats but the lions I always look out for. I've come across 4 mountain lions in my life in various areas in Cal. and I can sure do without them.
I've never seen a mountain lion in the area, but I have seen a BIG bobcat. Just because we don't see them doesn't mean that they're not there. I remember on the old site (check the archives) Rick Lopez wrote about seeing them on the creek. What ever happened to him? Is he here under a different name? I learned a ton from his reports.
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"Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught."
What makes the mountain lions dangerous is that most likely your not going to seem em until there on you, Most likely there most active at night. I have seen a few dead bobcats along the road. I think the rattlesnakes are what most of us need to be looking out for. If you have never tried it, Predator calling is a lot of fun if you like to hunt.
You can really only see mountain lions when the move, however, I have not seen any tracks in the area lately. I saw a deer swim the American while steelie fishing this winter. Just walked down and swam across. Later on I saw a coyote on the side which the deer had left. I have never seen deer flee from coyotes, but this one looked like it had.
Here is a picture of the otter and bobcat I saw back in December. The bobcat stole a crayfish from the otter. The otter climbed back on the rock attempting to take it back. It is hard to see the bobcat but its head is just to the right of the otters nose.
