streamers?

shon42073 · Senior Member

streamers?

chemdoc · Senior Member

I started using streamers on the creek last May (2005). Last summer I had excellent luck with an olive woolly bugger on a sinktip line. This year it was much slower for some reason. I was out a couple of weeks ago and caught two, but nothing like last year. Still, I usually carry one nymphing rod and another for streamers and try both. My buddy and I did have great success with woolly buggers on the Upper Sac last weekend, so you never know when they will be hot.

My friend caught a sculpin last fall on a nymph, so they are obviously in there. I haven't tried that pattern, but I know some folks use large streamers to try for big browns when they move up into the creek.

Phil

101fish · Senior Member

I had the same thoughts in the spring, about the potential of crawdad patterns producing, and even began doing some research on it. turns out, that there are only a couple of species of crawdad on the west coast, however, because of this there are plenty of patterns that work. Pretty much you want to treat the crawdads like an insect (in terms of a hatch), as they spawn several times a yr. Following the spawn when the eggs hatch there are plenty of little, soft shelled crawdads for trout to eat. All in all, never got out to try the patterns, if you do go, let me know how you do, or if you could use company

. As for the red stripe under the gill, I have caught several trout like that, some of the them very wild in all appearances, and very closely related to say, a lanthorn cutthroat. That being said, I have also caught several stockers that have the same stripe, and understand that those are cut-bows, or a cross breed made in a hatchery. It is possible that the ones on the creek you caught are offspring of the cut-bow stockers, but that is speculation. I have tried fishing large streamers, but had better luck with something around a size 8-10 woolly bugger, I think it imitates the damsel fly larva that inhabit the slow section, but again, who knows. good luck out there man.

-- Edited by 101fish at 22:37, 2006-10-12

JT · Senior Member

There are definitely sculpins in the creek. I've seen quite a few of them. There are some good patterns to imitate them. Just google "fly fishing sculpin" or fly tying sculpin" and I'm sure you'll get quite a few hits. If you want more info on sculpins themselves, just google "sculpins."

As far as crawdads go, the easiest time for fish to eat crawdads is when they're molting. Like insects, crawdads' shells do not grow. When they've started to outgrow their old shell, crawdads shed the shell and their new one hardens with time. Their shell is soft after the molt, leaving them vulnerable to predators. Fish will still eat them anytime, but I'm sure fish look for crawdads in this stage of their life cycle. There are tons of patterns out there for both soft-shell and hard-shell crawdads. In my experience, streamers do not produce that many fish, but they do produce some of the biggest fish.

I don't know the origin of the fish in Putah Creek but many of the "rainbows" have the "cutts" under their gills. On the fish that my dad and I have caught, the slashes are orange, not red like a pure cutthroat, suggesting some hybridization.

Resolute · Member

Hi Phil,

It was nice meeting you today. Thanks so much for the pointers. I actually caught my first trout today at Putah thanks to you.

Sincerely,

Angelo

chemdoc · Senior Member

Glad to help Angelo. A lot of the regulars advised me two years ago when I started fishing Putah and that really shortened the time needed to learn my way around. Did you have any luck with dries?

Phil

Resolute · Member

I had a couple of fish on with the dries but none landed. I had a lot of action with the dries around 5pm-6pm. I don't think I was setting fast enough, but boy was it fun!

bono · Master Fly Fishing Guide

Yes indeed there are a ton of "riffle sculpin" in Putah.Myself and Ken Davis have seen these fish literally under every large rock in some areas.In fact during the high flows and the resulting recedeing flows I encountered thousands of these fish trapped in small pools and rescued as many as possible,keeping 3 for my Putah creek 50 gal fish tank at home.I still have these fish and they are incredible to watch,they act and look like ling cod.I also found that they can survive out of water for a long time just like catfish,and seem to crawl on the bottom with the're pectoral fins but when they do swim they move in very fast short bursts.I have fished with sculpin patterns but with no luck at all.I think that trying to imitate the movements of these fish is extremely difficult therefore the lack of success.As far as cuttbow hybrids in Putah,I have unofficially heard that a cutbow hybrid was introduced in Miller canyon creek way back at the turn of the century.This little creek flows into Lk Solano and the upper reaches of it has a population of these fish that I would fish for when I was a kid,so maybe thats where the source of the light red-orange slash comes from.