Well I've been gone for quite some time from the creek. I hate to say it but I was discouraged by the hot days, heavy pressure, and high flows of early summer so I took my business elsewhere and had a fun summer catching tons of smallmouth bass as well as some nice trout in the sierras. You guys probably don't remember but I had an ongoing saga at Putah during the winter and spring trying to learn the water and I was really getting the butt end of the rod, although I did manage to hook and lose a couple real beasts. Anyways I made it out for the first time in about 4 months this weekend and my luck seems to have turned around a bit. I was out for about an hour on saturday evening and managed to land 2 small but wild rainbows on a hand tied #20 pt. Went out at 9am sunday and worked a few different spots. I managed to hook a bunch in one rocky stretch but only landed half of them. One big dude broke my tippet also. All fish were caught on hand tied #20 pt or #20 midge pupae. Biggest was 12" besides the one I broke off but all were wild except for one ugly slow planter. There sure is a huge difference between the wild and planted fish! Left at 6pm only because my loop connection from leader to line broke off and I didn't want to re-tie my whole leader setup, but I ended the day with 5 fish landed and another 5 missed. Not bad for a "newbie"
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"when you put your hand into a flowing stream you touch the last that has come before and the first of what is still to come" -DaVinci
Chuck nice report. Glad you got into some fish, it sure makes the day. #20 pt's are pretty much one of my favorite flies on Putah. Tye em small and catch em big.
Chuck, you may want to carry a spare leader in your vest. I ALWAYS do. Seems that quite often there's a branch that snags my leader and creates a messy tangle. Regarding a PT, it's always been one of my favorite flies. Besides the natural color, pheasant tail comes dyed yellow, brown, green and other colors. I have used them all. The green looks like an unnatural color, but it works really well. I once took two five pound brown trout out of Silver Creek in Idaho on a green PT.
Once again the ol pheasant tail is the hot topic. I have also been experimenting with an olive dyed one but the natural still gets me more fish. The twenty five best guide tips was in a magazine recently and one tip was always carry PT's. He said he carries them from 12 to 22. Nice job on the fish Chuck. When I catch fish at Putah it's a success no matter what the size. Sometimes you need a break from Putah even though I feel like the creek keeps me razor sharp sometimes. A couple months ago I had leader trouble but luckily the RV resort store has a few on hand in a glass case. The dude doesn't mind if you get his floor wet or muddy either as long as you're cool about it.
ok I'll admit that I could have done something about the leader, it was a poor coverup for being tired after over 8 hours of hard fishing, rough wading, and nasty bushwhacking. hehe thats putah for you, I'm 22 and the only time I get to bed before 2am is after a long day at the creek!! I agree with you guys about the pt's. While I have only used beaded, natural, and flashback I have caught my biggest trout on a fly on them (currently only 16") and I have not been to a place where they didn't work. The great thing is that they can pass for almost any aquatic insect as long as you get the size right. A pt is definitely my confidence pattern and you can bet that when I'm in doubt it is going to be the fly I tie on to search for some trouties.
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"when you put your hand into a flowing stream you touch the last that has come before and the first of what is still to come" -DaVinci
