9/18

coolbee · Veteran Member

9/18

SK60 · Senior Member

Hope you filled out a survey form.

coolbee · Veteran Member

Of course! I'm just gonna start putting that in at the end of every report. "And yes I filled out a survey."

shon42073 · Senior Member

How's the dry fly fishing?

Otter · Senior Member

low profile griffiths gnat!!

iamamultitasker · Senior Member

I've noticed that the fish seem awfully eager to go airborn this year. Almost all of them jump at least twice some as many as 6 or 7 times. I've also noticed that it is very hard to land big fish in 400+ cfs Putah Creek flows. Once they get in the current it's bye-bye.

Nohackle · Senior Member

Depending upon where you fish, weeds can also be a problem. Weed beds are at their peak at the end of Summer and big fish know how to take advantage of them.

Ty · Senior Member

I've noticed these rainbows are very strong and super chunky! These are some healthy fish.

Rossflyguy · Senior Member

Not only are the fish nice a healthy BUT they are eating on the surface. "Watched" a pod of fish rising to I'm assuming emergers and some caddis. I say "watched" cause they weren't eating anything I was offering.... means I gotta tie up some flies.

SK60 · Senior Member

Were they the typical small fish risers that we saw last fall?

browndude3649 · Veteran Member

Was out this morning above the bridge and at #1. No bites, some nibbles, but water was a half foot lower than a coupla weeks ago. Saw four guys below bridge real busy so I'm goin therer next time. Lost my SanJuan worm. Weather was real nice.

Bob Loblaw · Senior Member

I fished the creek twice last week, and both times I had a helluva time getting fish to the net. On MOnday I had one break me off and a couple spit the hook after pretty good fights and on Saturday same thing, I lost 4 fish and landed just one. A very nice fat 12 incher.

Need to work on my hook setting I think.

-- Edited by Bob Loblaw on Monday 24th of September 2012 01:09:48 PM

-- Edited by Bob Loblaw on Monday 24th of September 2012 01:10:38 PM

coolbee · Veteran Member

It's not sloppy hooksets bob. If anything, I'm quite forceful on the set and still lost the vast majority of my fish on the day I made this report. Good hooksets, sharp fresh hooks, no breakoffs, and I was putting plenty of pressure on them. These fish are just plain hot, well-fed little rockets right now.

Ty · Senior Member

I've had a good run lately getting just about all my fish to the net. They've been taking my top nymph (not the dropper) sz 18 but I'm using 4x. I've always gone with 5x at Putah but tried 4x a couple weeks ago and still hooking up regularly.

Bob Loblaw · Senior Member

I didn't have any take off on me, they all seemed to run to the fast water, try to get as deep as possible and hold. Remind me of the fish up on the Pit.

DrDan · Administrator

I've had similar experiences now for the last two outings. I'm getting about a quarter of the fish to hand and they have been the smaller ones. Well fed footballs though. It will be interesting to see the quality of fish during the up coming electro survey. My sense is that we have a nice little population of healthy trout.

I've had a few takes with a brief tug and a nice size silver flash. Why are these fish always on he downstream drift or just when I check my tackle. Smart fish.

Rossflyguy · Senior Member

drdan- thats because they are feeding on emergers.

Nohackle · Senior Member

Drdan, there are a couple things going on when you make a downstream drift. The drift speed of a downstream drift can be slightly slower than if you were casting upstream to the same location. This is because when you fish dowstream, the inertia of your flyline can actually slow the drift down (helping the fishing). If you were making an upstream cast, the pull of the current on your flyline speeds the drift up (usually not a good thing). Also, when you are setting the hook on a downstream drift, you have to lighten up on the strike since you are pulling the fly away from the fish's mouth and there is usually less slack in the line (the current is continually removing the slack). Even if you do hook the fish, the hook may lodge closer to the tip of the fish's mouth making it easier to pull out.

iamamultitasker · Senior Member

Dan,

Another possibility is that you aren't using enough weight. When I notice hooking fish downstream consistently, I immediately add more tin shot to my rig. When this happens frequently I tend to believe that my fly is only starting to settle into the strike zone near the backend of my drift. As many have pointed out, this is a bad place to set the hook because you are pulling the fly out of the fish's mouth and also because there is usually more slack to deal with.

In fact, last week I was using 2 BB's and sometimes a 2 AB's as weight. Paired with a golf-ball sized strike indicator, the operation barely resembled fly fishing. Still, hooked a lot fish and had fun although I was batting around .350 which is good for baseball, but less than mediocre for landing fish.

coolbee · Veteran Member

Went up today with rgloft and the bigger guys are a bit harder to find. Only stuck little guys and parrs. They're still hitting on emergers though. Make sure you're swingin em gentlemen.