fished nearly 6 hours saturday and i will say putah kicked my butt, been doin pretty decent lately and only managed 2 12 inch wild bows yesterday, think i am having a little trouble adjusting to the winter flows, seems like most spots are just too shallow to hold fish, good example is the riffle area around #4 and #5, i have always did pretty good here and now its way to shallow to hold fish, so were did they migrate to, did they move down into the lake, because i hit the deeper run above that for a few hours and didnt do much either, basically most of my goto spots are not working now, maybe it was the storm front that came threw saturday had something to do with it. i thought about trying some of the real deep slow moving sections but i really dont like fishing those areas much, to slow, i like faster drifts, anyways i ran outta day light. I thought i would have the creek to myself due to the rain but i actually saw alot of people fishing, not catching! One other thing i would like to add, why do the sighns posted all over putah say fly's with barbless hooks only from november 16 to last saturday in april when the fish and game regulations clearly states, ARTIFICIAL LURES WITH BARBLESS HOOKS, not artificial flys with barbless hooks, i thought this was a fly only creek from novemeber to april, and i did clarify this with the fish and game wardens that checked my license, searched my backpack, and went through my cooler, as i was at my car when he saw me. he said no bait and basically nothing with scent in it.
First of all, why are you getting freaky about not catching enough fish? Do you eat them? Secondly, if you are using flies anyway who cares if the park puts up signs for flies only in the off season. I am all for it. I have yet to see a single barbless hook lure. I generally will catch only 2 nice wild rainbows on a good day. After the second one, I am ready to go home anyway. I know the menu on this stream extremely well. The fish that are left at the end of the regular season tend to be the smarter ones and are difficult. I had been working on one particular fish I gave up on the other day, but tried again when I saw he was feeding on something I had a dead ringer to toss at him. Even then, it took a long time to get it in the lane at exactly the right time. A great fish and a great catch. Maybe I can catch him again, but it will be very hard to do. That's fine with me.
Not only are the fish left the smartest of the bunch, most of them are are wild and the lower flows allow them to be more aware of your approach, if it does not go against your sense of dignity, try hiding behind rock and other cover when you make your presentation. As for the fish migrating, many of them will follow their primary sources of food. In this creek, many of the the mayflies will be bedding down or limiting their activity, and the lower flows will drive the caddis in to deeper runs. This will move the fish either into the deeper runs on most days, or into slow-flow water to feed on crustaceans-shrimp and scuds- on midges- which will be around all winter- or on sculpins/hold over damsel flies and the like. Don't worry about not catching as many, as colder weather slows down metabolic rates as well, the ones you do catch will be tough, hearty fish, and something you can be proud of. As for the the regs, barbless hooks and artificial lures is as close as I have seen any state/provincial regulations get to fly only (even some of the "premier fly lakes in BC are single hook/barbless artificial), private water is the only thing regulated to flies only I think. I have rigged up spinning gear to fit the regs, mainly in BC for my dad, who doesnt fly fish. Essentially you pinch the barb down on a single hook panther martin and you are set, so long as any spin fishers on the creek obey the regs and the zero limit (is that still in effect?) I am more than happy to share the creek with em.
