Cream with your coffee (anyone)?

SK60 · Senior Member

Cream with your coffee (anyone)?

jcombs · Member

Thanks for the update.

shon42073 · Senior Member

I wouldnt� bother fishing up there, Ain't no fish above that creek bed. Freakin cabin fever man, I need to wet a line !

cole · Senior Member

SK, fire your address to me so I can see about sending you some bugs. biggrin

Packrat · Senior Member

Tell me about it! I was planning on taking Monday off and fishing, may not be able to now but everything is going to be blown out anyway.

dtp916 · Senior Member

Flows spiked to 223 as well. Its on the rise.

SCM · Senior Member

Looks like a fly tying weekend. Anyone have any new patterns?

Flying Dutchman · Senior Member

I'm taking out my tools right now--family is asleep and I like the looks of JT's drowned midge that was just posted in Fly Tying.

SCM · Senior Member

I couldn't find the JT's Drowned Midge. What thread is it under? I did some tying yesterday. I tied a fly called the Little Green Machine by Vince Wilcox. Here is a photo and recipe:

http://www.wileysflies.com/tyingtutorial/wilcoxslittlegreenmachine.html

I plan to tie some more stuff today. Possibly some A.P. nymphs, basic soft hackles, and maybe a larger streamer pattern.

SK60 · Senior Member

SCM-go to the fly recipe sites thread under fly tying

SCM · Senior Member

SK60,

Thanks for the direction to the thread. I just got done tying half a dozen of JT's Drowned Midge, although I had to substitute dark olive antron for the legs and teased out 3/0 white thread for the loop wing (just don't have enough supplies yet). When the water clears I will have to try this fly.

Thanks, Steve

SK60 · Senior Member

You're welcome. And thanks JT for sharing. There are a lot of other aquatic inverts in the creek that could be patterned, for instance that little scud that looks about a 22-24, a small golden stone that occurs sporadically, moth larvae, etc. And that black sculpin, the tan sculpin and the stickle back among the verts.

Packrat · Senior Member

Ah, the black sculpin. Remember my post about the browns? Well the fly wasn't a sculpin but it was similiar and meaty!

SK60 · Senior Member

Yes, but that fly could be mistaken for another creature altogether as well-you could call it the multipurpose mystery fly (MMF). If you look up a fly called the slump buster, you have a pretty good sculpin when tied in black.

-- Edited by SK60 at 14:24, 2008-01-26

brian clemens · Senior Member

hey packrat, we chatted about that mmf, i forgot to ask you where i can pic a few of them up in different sizes. if you want you can pm me the link or any info.

thanks
brian

my new yrs res is to start tying or get things together to start tying by the end of summer.

dtp916 · Senior Member

Slumpbuster is a nice bug.

Or fish imitation...

shon42073 · Senior Member

Went to putah today and the creek is defenitly unfishablde. Was able to find one particular spot that was was clear enough to fish, I didnt get anything but somebody I was with landed a rather large fish, I'll let him post about it if he wants to.

SCM · Senior Member

Quick question about trout behavior and water clarity....Do trout stop feeding when water conditions get murky? I used to bass fish quite a bit when I was younger and the bite was always on when water conditions got coffee brown, especially using lures with some flash. I would suspect trout just don't stop feeding when water clarity is less than desirable for the angler. Any thoughts?

shon42073 · Senior Member

I think the only time they stop feeding is when the water gets to cold, wich isnt gonna happen at putah. I think they still feed when the water is dirty, we saw a few rises today right in the muddy water, I think they can see pretty well.

SK60 · Senior Member

I agree with the Captain-a reasonable water temperature is much more important than clarity, and Putah consistently runs about 50-54 deg in winter, so its not the issue. As has been mentioned by many people in a number of threads, the trout can see, hear, feel or smell their food even in discolored water, just maybe not as easily or as well. Volume of water will obviously affect your ability to find them.

-- Edited by SK60 at 16:54, 2008-01-27

SCM · Senior Member

Thanks for the info guys. So, its more our ability (visibility) to find the holding spots in discolored/high water. Now I have one less excuse not to go out in weather...I would rather be beating muddy water all day knowing there is a remote chance of catching a fish than suffering a slow death in my cubicle.

-- Edited by SCM at 18:09, 2008-01-27

Nohackle · Senior Member

I also agree with the Captain.� I have actually seen fish rise in coffee colored water so they must be feeding.� I have even had a couple of decent days fishing off-colored water.� However, most of my days fishing off-colored water have been pretty tough.�

Emerger · Senior Member

Fishing the off-colored water has been tough. I've fished Putah for the past three weekends and noticed that the fishing has really slowed down. Two skunked weekends trying to figure out the game and finally caught a nice 23" rainbow yesterday to break my slump. She took a #22 red midge. That surprised me since I was operating under the general rule that you should fish with bigger flies in the off-colored water. Glad I tried that midge afterall :)

SK60 · Senior Member

Slow fishing end of December into January has seemed to me to be the most common thread comment, even before the rains. I also haven't seen as much insect activity in the air or dead bodies collecting among the weeds in quiet areas. Also where are all the smaller fish-no one seems to be reporting 10-15" fish. Maybe the creek life is in a temporary slow down, like one would see on free flowing streams.

Lahontan · Senior Member

I too, have seen many fewer "piglets" aww

�of late.

About the bugs...odd thing is that I saw a number of moderate hatches in August and September when starting to fish the creek. Where you'd see dozens going off for 10-20 minutes.

Almost nothing lately, but the last 2 times I've been out, I've seen the odd, random, "solo" spinner falling or working its way through the air. That's right...just one at a time.

So odd to see just one of those bugs, you expect to�see in hords!

shon42073 · Senior Member

Come on emerger, Show off the pic. ! That fish was sweet ! My net was to small, What a great problem to have. Your not gonna get the insect activity this time of year like your gonna get in the summer and fall, Thats normal. Find a decent sized back eddy then see whats floating around in it, Thats what I do sometimes, I'm surprised that you can actually see alot of bugs by lookin down instead of up. I agree the average size of fish has been pretty good the last few months.

-- Edited by thecaptain at 17:50, 2008-01-28

Emerger · Senior Member

It was a nice fish. She was pretty well spawned out but still a beauty biggrin

Lahontan · Senior Member

That's a great looking fish! ... I find the different coloration on these fish really interesting. The lighter/silver fish of this size have been eluding me. The purple and green in this one are cool.

Thanks for giving up the pic!

Any fish is a good fish, but it's all still a trip.

E.

dtp916 · Senior Member

ooooooooh, very nice dude! Thats some dirty water, though. Nice work!

JT · Senior Member

Emerger,
Nice fish, especially for the color of the water.� You must have hit her on the nose with your fly to get her take a #22 midge.� Good job.��