I was up at the Silver Fork yesterday, and while standing is a pool, noticed the largest rainbow I have seen in that river, about 18 in long. It was only about 10 ft away and in less than a foot of water. I thought perhaps it was spawning, but a friend, who is much more knowledgable about fish than I am, said that rainbows only spawn in the spring.
I seem to remember reading posts over the last couple of years on this site that talked about rainbows in Putah beginning the spawning runs in late fall, so I am a bit confused. When do the rainbows in Putah begin spawning, and how long does it last? Any thoughts from the veterans, and Greg in particular, would be appreciated. Thanks.
Generally speaking wild rainbows are early spring spawners, on all continents wich they occur. thats word for word straight from the encyclopedia, it also says that due to hatchery management that there are now trout that will spawn every month of the year. sometimes i wonder what the effect of introducing planters into wild trout waters are.
I caught a little 3 incher today thinking I snagged a leaf on my fly. It was fine as I let it swim off on its own. I think he is too young to be from the springtime spawn. As for the current waterflow chart, AHEM!, there is no way that the water was flowing above 50 cfs today. Mike
There are steelhead spawning runs on many of the area rivers in the Winter. The Putah rainbows also spawn in the Winter. I just assumed that the wild rainbows in Putah were the offspring of the holdovers from the steelhead runs that were trapped when the dams were built on the creek. That would explain the early (or late) spawning run.
-- Edited by JT at 06:45, 2006-11-06
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