B-day Fishing

The day before my birthday I decided to make a little fly fishing trip out to “Central” putah creek in Davis. I had originally planned to take a bigger trip out to Western Putah in search of some trophy rainbows but ended up waking up too late.

In the past I haven’t taken pictures of this fishing hole that once graced me with my first largemouth bass on the fly so I decided to snap some on this day.

My first stop was this hole which might look great but is actually only about 1-2 ft deep and teeming with pikeminnows.  I threw a couple of flies but due to the low hanging tree branches and tight casting I decided to move to the next hole.

This next hole is the big producer for me. Here a black wooley bugger gets the job done all summer long. Now I’m not sure if it was because  the water was cold or my inexperience (or a combination of both) but on this specific day the fish were scarce. I didn’t get a single fish to take my offerings. I only saw one bass in the water; I usually see them following my flies, but not on this day. 

My final stop was this third hole. This hole usually produces when others don’t and although I did see a few more fish out here they were not interested in what I threw in their direction. Around this point I started getting hungry so I split. 

Well, it’s always good to practice my fly cast. Big news coming soon but that’s it for now!

Total fish: 0

First Fruits of Fall

I had half the day off so I decided to hit up Central Putah south of the City of Davis. I need a little practice on the fly rod so I armed myself with nothing but Excalibur. This was my first fall trip and even though the nights are getting cooler, the summer bass patterns still seem to be in play.

There are three different spots on putah that I fish. “Western Putah” is what I call the area next to the dam up through the city of winters. After that there is a stretch that runs in Davis and that is what I call “Central Putah.” Then there is a third stretch in the Davis Wildlife area that I call “Eastern Putah.”

Anyway, I made my way out to central Putah and started off with a San Juan Worm under a strike indicator. At one point something hit but it wasn’t a takedown. After that I went with what is proven to work there, the black wooley bugger, Sure enough after a few casts I drew first blood with a small largie.

After that fish I decided to try some other flies including a sparkly worm (don’t know the actual name, lol) that I had, some streamers, a large white popper, a royal humpy, a lt Cahill, etc.


What finally ended up working was an orange panfish popper I had. For whatever reason they didn’t seem to like it much after that. In fact, the later it got the less they seemed to be feeding.

All in all it was a quick outing, two fish caught on the fly and released to grow. No complaints here. I know this is still summer-like fishing and I’m looking forward to seeing what fall time has to offer.

Total Fish: 2 Largemouth bass

Sometimes it is a Must!

When you have to fish, you have to fish!  Last Friday after getting out of work, I had to fish! I took my fly rod and went out to Central Putah creek in Davis. I was eager to try my dam spot and what would you know..,. my damn spot was taken!  A bunch of kids who were swimming and fishing at the same time. I ended up going to another spot and this kid was there fishing alone. Turns out he was with the swimming kids. He asked if I was fly fishing and I too the time to teach him a little bit about the ol fly rod and even let him try out my fly rod. He was pretty impressed.

I went to spot number two and ended up catching one baby smallmouth bass, but that was it for the day.He ended up flopping away before I can take a picture  Right after the kids left, I went over to the dam to give it a try but it was dead. Kids must have scared my fish away. 

Saturday my dad and I went out for some striper on the sac again. The bite seemed slow at first but it picked up as the day advanced.  At about my third cast I had a bite and I’m not really sure what happened, but my line snapped.  I had to tie another leader on but was back on the water in minutes. First striper was pops and it was a small one. I came second with my first little guy.  At about my fourth cast I got a bite, and ended up pulling in another line. Turns out it was my other line so I pulled it in by hand and realized my weight and hook were still on.  What’s cooler than that is that there was a small striper still on the line! 

I did end up taking my fly rod but as you can see in the picture there isn’t much space to cast here. Either way, I did my best and threw out some streamers, some black wooley buggers and some poppers. No takers. 

 

I ended up catching shaker after shaker on my spinning rod but no keepers. The biggest of the night were two fifteen inchers and a sixteen incher. I also ended up catching a 12 inch channel catfish. I hoped to catch at least a couple more cats or a keeper size striper but it didn’t happen so I released him. Pops ended up catching 2 stripers, which made it a 13 fish day.  Not a bad time but still searching for those keepers! 

Total Fish: 1 Smallmouth bass + 1 Catfish + 10 Stripers = 12 fish

Sometimes it’s Destiny

I had a camping trip set up with a couple of buddies this past weekend.  We were all set to go and then one of the buddies was told he had to work late which ended the hopes of a camping trip. I felt pretty down about that considering we were supposed to head to Lake Camanche and try our hand at some trout, bass and catfish.  I was especially looking forward to trying to catch some Largemouth bass on the fly rod. But alas, it didn’t happen. We were supposed to head out later in the day on Saturday, around 4 so I waited until 4, got the news that we weren’t going, grabbed excalibur and then went to the fishing hole. 

For that day, the fishing hole was Putah creek Central as I will call it because there are three different areas of putah that I fish; West putah (tail water of Berryessa all the way to Lake Solano) Central putah (Davis city limits) and East Putah which is located in the Davis Wildlife area and is headed to the Delta). 

I arrived at Putah at around 5:00. I hit spot #1 and tied on old faithful (or fairly new faithful) the royal humpy in an orange color. I tossed a few with no bites. It was also fairly tight casting so I moved on after a while. Then I went to spot #2, where I have seen a lot of bluegills in the past as well as some pikeminnows and largemouths. I cast a few and could see the panfish coming up, checking the RH out and swimming away. For whatever reason they did not enjoy the humpy. I went a few feet down and the same thing happened.

The last spot was a spot on a little dam or concrete barrier thing that funnels the water on that spot of the creek. The funny thing about this spot on the creek is that I have fished it before and didn’t catch anything.  I fished it with a black wooley in the past but had no luck. This time I tried the RH but no fish were interested.  After a while I looked at it and just pictured that if any bass were there, they were waiting for an easy meal outside of the swift current. I thought the bass might enjoy a streamer but when I went into my fly box my eye landed on a bead headed black wooley bugger. I don’t know why, it just made sense. So even though I had fished WB’s here in this exact spot before and caught nothing, I went for it. A few feet away from me there was a snag that made me think I had caught a fish a couple of times. At about the 10^th cast I stripped my line and thought I had a snag, but then it moved! I pulled in a little smallmouth bass which I had never caught at this creek before. Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of this fishing spot but its and interesting one. Its about 2 feet across at the spot where I was standing and casting and maybe about 2.5 feet across as it gets closer to shore. Fun little place to fish but you lose your balance at all and you’re wet! 

About 4 casts later I felt another tug and I got down on one knee to pull this fish in. I could tell it was a little bit bigger and had more fight. When I finally got him in, I realized that this sucker was a largemouth bass! I was very excited about this milestone which wasn’t big but enough to scratch the Largemouth off of my list. A few casts later I got into a second largemouth, this one a bit smaller. I was pretty happy to have figured out the key to catching fish here. 

Now, do you remember the snag I was telling you about earlier? Well I fell victim to that snag and I lost the only all black beaded wooley bugger I had. I looked in my box and I tied on a beaded thin mint but no takers. Then I tied on a black streamer and still no takers. I had a black wooley with red flakes in it and I figured that was the closest thing but unfortunately they showed no interest in that either. After a while I called it a day and added a mental note to pick up a few beaded black wooleybuggers for my next trip out there. As it turns out, I didn’t have to go all the way to Camanche to catch a bass on the fly, I did it 20 minutes from my door step. 

With this day I completed one of my 2014 goals, to catch a largemouth AND a smallmouth on the fly! Now its time to catch some larger buckets and smallies. I look forward to that feat!

Total Fish: 1 Smallmouth bass + 2 Largemouth bass = 3 fish