I've made two trips to the creek this month and got skunked both times. I fished #5 over the island beneath the storm pipe and above the bridge at the north end of the campground. I have been drifting wd 40s, fox pupas, zebra heads and pheasant tails all small size 22 except the fox. I gotta figure I am not getting down deep enough. I have never used strike indicators or split shot. I would like to know what is the best set up for this water when the flow is around 400-500 cfs as it has been for the last month?
Michael, your right your not getting down deep enough. Use a splitshot or two with or without an indicator. If there's ever a time for an indicator its now while the flows are up and the fish arent too spooky as they will be in late fall and winter months. Good luck and remember the fish are always in there.
You definitely want to use split shot right now. How many you use depends on the area that you're fishing. You will hit the bottom quite a bit using weight and you'll have to clean moss off of your flies pretty often. That's actually an indicator that you're at the right depth. It can be annoying to clean crap off of your flies every other cast, but if you're not doing this, you need to add more weight or mend more.
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"Nothing makes a fish bigger than almost being caught."
As others have said, you pretty much have to use split shot with the current high flows. Buy yourself an assortment of splitshot so you can add just the right amount of weight. By this I mean enough weight to get your flies near the bottom of the stream, yet not so much that your drift is unnatural (where you have to mend every couple of feet). Put the split shot around 9 or 10 inches above the fly (or top fly if you are using two). In addition, you may want to consider using beadhead flies or flies that are very heavily weighted. When tying flies for Putah, I tend to use more weight than is normally recommended for the size of the fly.
