I fished Putah this past Friday. While cleaning moss of my nymph rig, I ket finding small worm like critters impaled on the hook. I assumed they were caddis larva, so I tied on an olive colored Fox's Poopah, but had no luck.
I have searched all over the internet for a photo matching what I saw on the water. Unfortunately, I haven't found any photos. Here is a basic description: 4 to 6 mm in length, round head-black in color, segmented (or rather ringed) body - olive in color, no visible appendages, and no visible mouth parts.
Any help identifying this insect and its immitating fly is appreciated.
The green/olive fox poopah with the dark black dubbing up top is the right imitation.
The best place to catch fish on the poopah is below shallow, gravelly runs. Traditionally, caddis are faster water type bugs. Thus, the faster water and pools below faster water is where the fish like them.
Problem with the caddis right now though is that they are NOT hatching. The mayflies are. That's why the PTs are so effective right now. If the mayflies stop hatching, or the caddis start hatching, the green poopah will rock. The other week when I reported good success on the green poopah, there wasn't a huge mayfly hatch. There were also TONS of the green larvae in the gravel. The fish in those areas were keying on them.
I'd stick to mayfly imitations right now, and be sure to watch for the hatch. As it happens, tightlining the mayfly nymphs kills them, and you'll get a lot of takes on the swing.
Hey guys, Also remember that the same bugs aren't coming off all at once throughout the entire river. They'll hatch in stages at different times in different places, usually from downstream up. I have been fishing on the same days when people posted about hatches and not seen a single bug where I was fishing, and I was looking! Also, different insects use different parts of the stream as habitat and the trout in these sections might be more keyed to what is prevalent there. Right now the baetis are everywhere so having the pt on is a great idea, but I wanted to give just a little more incentive to check whats there before you tie on. Charlie
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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
My guess is that you are seeing midge larva or aquatic worms. Caddis have legs and a visible head. Could also be those little western weedy water sedge caddis. These are the little caddis that pop out of the tapered cases that are in most weed trawls on Putah. In any case green brassies, olive midges and small fox poohpahs down to size 20 will catch a lot of fish. Sloan's mighty mite also works well. I think that is what it is called. It is made out of olive vrib and is supposed to imitate a BWO, but it works well on Putah for small caddis and BWOs.
