as you read no one spills there guts on their spots that are hot, just read all the threads especially the one that chucktheduck wrote about finding fish on putah, read that and go fish. only time and experience will help you find and catch more fish. trust me been there done that, still doing it to this day

ya i am some help told u to check out the other posts especially the one the chuck wrote, its very informative, with me i have noticed that where you think fish should be like wow that water looks great, 75% of the time that is not the case, so read that post it will help you a lot, and fish fish fish, practice makes perfect, and ya our paths might cross someday, oh ya, keep an eye on your rod when roll casting, and keep you fly boxes tied to you somehow 

Ez, just fish where you think there is fish...use your instincts. I find most fish around shallow riffles, but that because that's what I like to fish. There are fish all over Putah. Just make sure you get down towards the bottom. I think that's the most important thing here. Unless the fish are rising. Oh, and don't forget about swing streamers.

  on the streamers what size and should i use a floating line orrr?????

I find fish by using "The Force".

JL,

great advice.  I gain ground everytime I go out,
whether I get em or not.

Thanks,
Ed

Hmm, that's weird. Usually I don't see many dead fish laying around, unless you're talking about peoples stringers. Don't get discouraged though. It took me about 3 trips before I actually caught my first fish there. Then after that I had no problem catching them.

     u must have been the one i was talking to yesterday....

man if i saw that 20" fish i would have cried, thats a native and thats some lil baby fish. sad to see a egg laying or one that helps produce next yrs hatch dead like that. normaly fish that size dont hit bait, but every once in a great while they do. but either way. remember all of us that catch and release. bring those fish in as quickly as you can, take your quick pic if needed and get it back into the water as soon as possible, all done with wet hands, i see a lot of you using ur net for your hands and never really touchin the fish, you take the pick with the fish still in the net. that is really awsome. either way, just make sure the the fish swims off on its own, dont just push it out into the current and expect it to live. you will get a belly up 20" fish downstream. they us up a lot of energy when we catch them the least we can do is make sure they get that energy back, one swim off and two to fight another day.

-- Edited by brian clemens at 12:55, 2007-10-16

its sad but i remember last winter encountering a number of dead fish i think maybee the drastice drop in flows maybee putting alot of stress on the fish i dont know just a guess?

There is a measurable mortality rate for the fish we catch and release, if you caught and released 20 fish in a day then chances are very good that a couple of those wouldn't make it, even if they appeared to swim off OK. Like you say, everything we do to improve their chances like limiting handling them, wetting hands, not squeezing them, using rubber nets (and avoiding using a net altogether), not overplaying them, and using barbless hooks are some of the things that help improve their chances.  I also don't lose any sleep over having fish flop off at my feet rather than rushing to grab them or net them and induce more stress.  Someone somewhere wrote that a good practice is to hold your breath when you pull them out of the water to get an appreciation of how the clock starts ticking, it's great if you can get them back in the water before you have to take a breath.  Dropping flows are just one more stressor that could push a fish over the edge. 

It could also be that you're looking at a fairly typical mortality from a day of fishing, it's just that these fish would otherwise disappear into the depths where they would die and be scavenged.  The rapid water drop could expose them before nature takes its course.  We'll never know for sure.

Also, try to release them into the stream and not into a little flooded pond next to the stream.... Eh Brian. lol

It's actually a little early for fish to be dying due to spawning.  I would say that the fish most likely died from being overplayed and not revived properly.  The lower flows could have played a factor as well.