030308 Report

SK60 · Senior Member

030308 Report

shon42073 · Senior Member

Nice to hear ya got into a few SK60. I figure theres so much slow water on putah learning to fish it will be one more option you may have when the traditional runs are not producing.

Bugger · Senior Member

Good to hear someone is catching fish. This weekend was very slow for me (as well as for the few other anglers I talked to on the creek). Saturday, landed a 13'' wild bow on a small peach egg in the afternoon and hooked another one on a black beadhead�bugger, this one broke off at the first headshake (I was getting lazy with the knots).��Didn't even get a�take�on Sunday. Tried almost everything in my boxes from size 6 to 22 in all kinds of water. Even resigned myself to�try indicator-nymphing in some SAW�with no results. Except improvements casting in the wind (spent a lot of frustrating time looking like that guy in the video that was posted elsewhere on this forum).�More bugs in the air and on the water than I've�seen in a while, but�saw only 1 rise all weekend.

I have a�question...�I�saw�a bug for the�first time this sunday,�not on the water but nearby, about an inch long with long wings on its back, I think it may be a stonefly, maybe a little yellow sallie?�Any stoneflies at Putah?��

Emerger · Senior Member

I saw that same bug too Bugger. It looked like a small stone fly to me but I couldn't positively ID it. The wings were long, clear and long. The body of the bug was black. Anyone know what that might be?

SCM · Senior Member

Any chance it was a termite? I have noticed there is quite a lot of downed wood around Putah, most of it rotting out, which is very attractive to termites.

SK60 · Senior Member

According to Ken Davis, the stream biologist, there is a smallish stonefly that occurs in small numbers on the creek. Winged ants and termites usually show up� later in the spring and have lacy transparent wings.

JL · Senior Member

I've definitely seen lots of yellow sallies (in the summer esp) but those are smallish yellow stone flies - you can't miss them b/c of their distinct yellow coloration.� Also, Stoneflies have two sets of wings... When they fly, you can tell they're stone flies by the double wings.

I've seen a couple other species of stone flies, but I'm not sure what they are.

JL

Bugger · Senior Member

Wasn't a flying�ant... But maybe a termite,�I found�some pics of what could look like the right profile. But the ones I've seen had a pale yellowish body.�I realize the mental image I have isn't as good as I tought it was... another reason to bring a camera when you go fishing. Thanks guys.

JT · Senior Member

Thinking bakc to previous years, the only stoneflies I've seen on the creek have been little yellow stoneflies.� I have always seen them in March as well, so that may be what you saw.� There are also snakeflies in the area.� They are not aquatic, but usually live near water.� They have wings that lay flat against their back like a stonefly, but they have long necks (technically, prothoracic segments).� They are brownish in color.

Bugger · Senior Member

I just googled the snakeflies...�it wasn't one...

Emerger · Senior Member

It definitely wasn't a snake fly or a termite (I googled images of them just to be sure).

LilWhippersnapper · Senior Member

I've had one salmon fly land on me last year...It was about an inch long and had an orange bottom. Nasty lookin thing.

WytEurp · Senior Member

I had a pritty day on the creak Saturday. three fish in three hours but were nice ones.

18" tan fox poopa
19.5" pink jan juan worm
20.5" on a #20 black midge poopa

I left when the crowds started coming. On my drive home there were so many cars on the side of the road I felt like I was at the Mall.....

Since I have switched to a bamboo rod I have not had one fish break off. ( probubly jinxed myself now, but you gota love the slow action of bamboo)

Oh one thing I was going to bring up was I went to the flyfishing show in Pleasanton last week and sat in on a couple of great classes. One was put on Ozzie Ozefovich on Feeding Lies. He has done a lot of under water filming of trout feeding. Im convinced that we are all getting alot more bites then we think we are. The trout can spit a fly out that doesnt tast like food so fast without any movement that there is no way we would feel it or see it in our strike indicator.

I also wanted to ask everyone is anyone using the "tuck cast" when nymphing?

Emerger · Senior Member

Ozzie's films are great! I have the first two and love them. There's lot's of great footage in there that'll make you reconsider the way you currently fish.

LilWhippersnapper · Senior Member

Captain let me borrow a dvd showing great underwater footage... It shows how trout use less energy in fast water than in slow water...and how they bite things that aren't even food, like leaves and sticks. Shows a bunch of different stuff. It's a really great video.

Emerger · Senior Member

That's one of Ozzie's videos LilWhippersnapper. My favorite footage is of a rainbow feeding on caddis flies on the surface. He has very clear footage of how the entire caddis fly's body is submerged in the film and the only thing breaking the surface is it's wings. I'll never grease the entire caddis fly again.

shon42073 · Senior Member

I got that video from Emerger. Makes ya defenitly look at things a bit differently.

Bugger · Senior Member

Emerger wrote:
He has very clear footage of how the entire caddis fly's body is submerged in the film and the only thing breaking the surface is it's wings. I'll never grease the entire caddis fly again.

My favorite pattern during a Caddis�hatch is an E/C caddis by Ralph Cutter� (see http://www.flyline.com/fly_patterns/dry_flies/ec_caddis/). �He also recommends to grease only the wing, hackle and thorax so that the abdomen and the shuck tail break the film.

I heard�his video "Bugs of the Underworld" is also excellent...

-- Edited by Bugger at 19:36, 2008-03-04

-- Edited by Bugger at 19:41, 2008-03-04

SK60 · Senior Member

It is. In it he describes a "U" shape for emerging midges at the surface, suggests it could make an effective fly pattern. Any ideas as to how to tie it?

Emerger · Senior Member

Why the "U" shape? Are their heads and tails breaking the film? I'm trying to visualize what you mean.

JT · Senior Member

They attach their head and tail to the surface film.� The middle of the body hangs in the water, creating the U-shape.

Misterbill · Member

I also thought about the "curved midge" when I saw the Cutter video.

What I came up with is a midge tied on an enameled or painted x-short shank or circle hook. A very short underbody and a head from a single turn of pea**** herl for the "head". I would dab floatant on the herl and fish it in the surface film with the curve of the circle hook hanging below, point up. The trick is that the hook itself forms the body of the midge. I figure I might get away with a slightly larger hook size due to the skinny nature of the design So far I have only tried black and red hooks, because I already had a few. I have also been eyeing some really cool color in my wife's nail polish box. I will be painting a handful of hooks with some different finishes to see how they look.

Best Regards,
Bill

SK60 · Senior Member

I had thought of using a fine plastic lacing that is used for bead stringing, tied sort of like a SJW along the upper shank and doubled back to make a loop and tied in near the eye. Add herl or dubbing for head. The key is to give it a skinny profile to match pupa. I wonder if a biot would work as well?

-- Edited by SK60 at 09:37, 2008-03-05

Emerger · Senior Member

Emerger wrote:

It definitely wasn't a snake fly or a termite (I googled images of them just to be sure).

I fished the creek today and saw lots of bugs on the water, including more of those unidentified bugs we were talking about earlier in this forum. I took some pics this time. Can anybody ID them?

�

shon42073 · Senior Member

CADDIS. I'm weak at entomology so if i am wrong please be gentle guys. But i;m sure its a dark colored caddis. You left out the part about how many fish you caught biggrin

Chris Laskodi · Veteran Member

It's hard to tell from the pictures but I'd say they are stoneflies. Distinguishing characteristics of stoneflies (Plecoptera) are membranous wings that fold over back (super common in insects), two tarsi on the end of their legs (can't tell from picture, basically two hooks on end), two cerci (tails) on their abdomen, and sometimes remnant gills on abdomen or thorax. It's impossible to see any of those, except for the wings, from the pics. It sure looks like a stonefly to me though, in fact I'd bet money it is.

As for caddis, their wings fold up like a tent. Their wings also have hairs which you can see if you look closely. Only butterflies and moths have hairs/scales on their wings like caddisflies. That is also their closest relative. The caddisflies scientific name is Trichoptera, which translates as hair wing. Here's one coutesty of troutnut.com, you can see the hairs on the wing margin. This is the best site for fly fishermen entomology by far.

Anyone interested in getting started in entomology I strongly recommend "Complete Book of Western Hatches" by Hafale & Hughes. By far the best book without getting too technical.

LilWhippersnapper · Senior Member

looks like a salmon fly to me. Except, I don't see a orangish head.

-- Edited by LilWhippersnapper at 19:52, 2008-03-06

-- Edited by LilWhippersnapper at 19:55, 2008-03-06

ONEWEIGHT · Senior Member

It looks like a stonefly, but then not really.� The wings are very flat, versus a raised wing on the stonefly.� Maybe they're just early in the hatch stage??� I don't think so, but I could be wrong, because the Putah pictures show a bug that is already flying.� It doesn't have much belly color for a stonefly either, but they can all be different.� Any other guesses?��

SK60 · Senior Member

With my advanced degree in entomology from Davis, I can guarantee that is a stone fly. There are several species with sporadic occurence in PC and Dry Creek, so its not possible to ID it from those photos.

If you have a little yellow stone� nymph imitation, it might be worth a try because at least one Putah species has a light colored nymph.

-- Edited by SK60 at 20:43, 2008-03-06

Chris Laskodi · Veteran Member

It's definitely not a salmonfly. They are huge, they can get close to 3" long. There are tons of stonefly species and can look very different from one another. A lot of stoneflies are pretty bland in color, just like the one in Emerger's picture. I can't say for sure what it is because I can't see any of the distinguishing characteristics because of the picture quality. I'm just taking a guess based on my experiences with aquatic insects. I'm probably 99% sure its a stonefly.

-- Edited by Chris Laskodi at 20:20, 2008-03-06