October 17th fishing report

Kip · Newbie

October 17th fishing report

LelandFly · Veteran Member

I've tried some crayfish patterns such as the Circus Peanut and Sex Dungeon, both Kelly Galloup flies and haven't hooked any trophies but this is likely due to the lack of time fishing them. However, have had some healthy fish who hit the fly hard and are easy to land due to fishing 2-3x. I find that's it's browns that are a bit more predatory and eat crayfish even when small say 13-15" but rainbows don't seem to be as aggressive in their food. Those bigger Putah fish that hang in Solano for part of the year likely have such a different diet than an average river rainbow so my advice is try everything.

troutie · Member

Hi Kip,

I too noticed some monster crayfish, darn near looked like lobsters. I'd love to see the fish that would eat those.

Trouite

LelandFly · Veteran Member

Here's a tip I learned from Kelly Galloup but failed to use it the other day on Putah when fishing a large streamer... Most people strip streamers by pulling line over their stripping finger, taking their hand off the line and grabbing it again. Well, most often you'll get your strike during the pause while your hand is off the line and it's just draped over your stripping finger. You feel a tug, it slides past your finger and the fish is gone. The fish grabbed the fly violently but no hook penetrated and it spit the fly immediately. If however, you had contact with the line and didn't allow it to move through the guides you likely would have got a hook to penetrate its mouth. Kelly's tip is to move the rod tip with a pinched finger on the line and cork, and then pull the slack from the movement of the rod tip with your other hand. This way you're always in contact with the line ready for the grab. The fly I was using was about 4 inches.

www.slideinn.com/store/product_info.php
In tan, looks just like a crawfish.

Rossflyguy · Senior Member

Play around with a crawfish pattern. Don't tie it too big. Fish like cares with smaller pinchers. That's why you see giant crawfish and not smaller ones. Dead drifting a craw pattern works there if you figure out the pattern. It's not always size 18-22 flies 😁

Kip · Newbie

Thanks for the tips, everybody! I'm thinking I would try it just to see. I do have some smaller sized in the box I was thinking about throwing out there. I read articles in my fly fishing magazines that would indicate it might be worth a shot but Putah Creek is.......Putah Creek. Some of those big craw daddy's might be better off drizzled with clarified butter!! Seriously.....I saw one that was every bit of 5" from tip of the head to tail. I don't see them like that too often except occasionally in Tahoe....

I'm thinking about going up again soon - maybe mid week next week so I'll give another report.

prettyfly · Veteran Member

HI Everyone- so-- just wondering, when you are fishing a crawfish pattern, do you have to use sinking line or a sink tip? Or can I just use my usual floating line with that kind of pattern? I finally got myself a 5-wt for Putah after borrowing one for years so I'm looking forward to going up there soon.

Ty · Senior Member

Prettyfly, it all depends on the depth of water you are working in. In these flows your floating line should be fine.

Rossflyguy · Senior Member

You can dead drift it under an indicator

LelandFly · Veteran Member

Rossflyguy wrote:
You can dead drift it under an indicator

We call that the "slop rig" and it works, especially from a drift boat.

frank trout · Veteran Member

thinking of going to Putah tomorrow are the fish on redds now and if so are the redds along the hole stretch or just up by the bridge and dam

Berryessie · Senior Member

Yes there are fish on redds but through out the creek. There are several fish still holding in areas that hasn't started doing there thing. The spawning areas are marked for the most part. If you see a fish in less then 2 ft of water odds are they are spawning there.

lightfoot · Senior Member

Berryessie wrote:
If you see a fish in less then 2 ft of water odds are they are spawning there.

That brought back memories and I chuckled. I was doing a survey at Deer sign and had a guy come sloshing into the bed area and spooked all of the spawners into the hole below. Not seeing any fish on the beds, he moved down to the hole that was now full of fish and began sight casting. He contended that since they were not on the beds they were not spawners. After watching him actively fish for spawners multiple years in a row, my guess is he is fishing the same place this weekend. SSS.

If you see fish, odds are they are spawning.

Rossflyguy · Senior Member

lightfoot wrote:
Berryessie wrote:
If you see a fish in less then 2 ft of water odds are they are spawning there.
That brought back memories and I chuckled. I was doing a survey at Deer sign and had a guy come sloshing into the bed area and spooked all of the spawners into the hole below. Not seeing any fish on the beds, he moved down to the hole that was now full of fish and began sight casting. He contended that since they were not on the beds they were not spawners. After watching him actively fish for spawners multiple years in a row, my guess is he is fishing the same place this weekend. SSS.

If you see fish, odds are they are spawning.

100% correct. That's why I don't fish it from Nov to Feb. Why try to catch big fish that are so tired to put up a fight?

-- Edited by Rossflyguy on Friday 20th of November 2015 07:10:17 AM

frank trout · Veteran Member

Please understand that my ? was so I could stay away from the redds and spawning fish not to hunt them

Berryessie · Senior Member

Frank trout we are all on your side and didn't take that as you wanting to find the spammers.