What's up with the flow?

Flyfish_addict · Newbie

What's up with the flow?

brian clemens · Senior Member

i had a hard time myself on friday, usually when it drops dramaticly like this its good to say a few days before it starts pickin back up again. the fish have to get use to the new flows, dont get me wrong, the fish will still hit and are catchable, just may be a lil bit harder to pick them off, they will be very spooky, and need to get the perfect drift and the perfect match of flies to what they are eating, i was not able to match what they was eating on friday but they was everywhere

Flyfish_addict · Newbie

Thanks Brian, I'll throw my gear in and like they say a bad fishing beats a good day at work (especially in North Cal) aww

brian clemens · Senior Member

hell ya. just try spots that do have some decent flow, and some depth, if its sunny out, wear dark cloths, and dont just run up on the bank looking for fish or get into the water right away. look around, see if you cant find some water where you can turn over some rocks to see what might be hatchin. either way give it a few minutes and look around in the water to see if you can see any fish, flashes are always a awsome sign, that means they are feeding. once you have decided where you want to fish, then decide what you wanna use, depth of indicator and what not. the flow is slower than a snail race right now, so they will be stacked up in certain areas and others not. a good pair of polarized will help you out a lot. remember dark cloths.

Howard · Member

So, I probably should have been turned off by the flow, but I went up anyway today (Sunday), and decided to fish some different spots from my usual given the different conditions.� Maybe that was a mistake.� It was slow.� Caught one, but what I wanted to report is something I had always suspected but never seen before, that is the fish were massed like crazy: I mean 30 or 40 big fish the smalle ones werer 14" or so, all� in one of the deep pools. I must have tried that hole a bizallion times, but today, with such a low flow I was able to get to the other side,�climb up on� huge bolder about 8' over the water, �and look down.� It was like looking into Heaven (except I was looking down, what does that tell you about fishing?)

Now, I still didn't catch any of them, they were just looking up and laughing at me, but oh my gosh!� I had never seen anything like it.� At least 10 of them were 18 to 20 and there were at least 3 or 4 montsters in there.� It was really a fantastic sight.� I have seen 5 to 10 big fish together on Putah before, but nothing like this.�

So, low flows did me in, but wow, it was spectacular to see what Putah holds

brian clemens · Senior Member

here is a hit, now that flows are low, you must literally hunt for these fish. have to be stealthy and sneaky, where dark colored cloths, camo if you have it. you will be suprised. work your way slowly to the rivers edge. if you can fish it 5 ft of the edge and still just make out the fish then you are good. its gonna be hard, but if you can sneak up on them, and not spook them you can be in for a really great treat. also if you have great line control, cast upstream, i have done this in the past with low flows, not on putah but on the carson, the fish cant see you, normally you can get to it with one or 2 roll cast or if there are no trees overhanging you can do the old 10-2 casting and normally hit it in one. another one that works is lettin your line go down stream, then sorta a lob cast letting the water pull the line which loads the rod almost like a sling shot. but again key is makin it so the fish dont see you, you can just make out the fish. once they see you its gonna be hard to catch them.

good luck