Putah Creek, Northern California, April 16 2012

I fished Putah Creek today in Northern California. It was the closest trout stream where I am working for business currently. I contemplated the 3 hour drive to the Upper Sacramento but I wanted to try the local stream. I scouted the creek on Saturday and talked to one local fisherman. He informed me that Putah creek is  a "four star trout fishery", whatever that means. I do know that Putah is not stocked anymore and there are some incredibly large wild rainbows in there, 30+ inches.

I fished the morning from 1030-130 between pulloffs 2 and 3. I tried nymphing a BHPT, caddis pupa, zebra midge, and a caddis emerger. I didn't get any hits nor did I see many fish. I went back to my hotel room until around 6 and heading back out for the evening hatch and what a hatch it turned out to be! Slowly, yellow stoneflies began to fill the air. There were some other "non eastern flies" that I couldn't identify as well. Once the flies came out, the fish started to show themselves by rising to the stones. I missed roughly 6 and landed 5. None were even close to the monsters I was hoping for but it was fun to catch them and they are my first wild rainbows. Their colors are quite different than the stockies we catch in PA. I caught all the trout on a yellow colored sulphur parachute pattern.

I'm anxious to get back to the Pocono's since I missed yet another trout opener. I have never fished opening day in the 8 years I've lived in PA. Even once I do get the chance, I doubt I would contend with the crowds anyway.

Lake Berryessa Dam



 Lake Berryessa

 Putah Creek

Putah Bow

Putah Bow

Early April 2012 - McMichael's Creek Delayed Harvest

The past week, MMC has been producing good hatches of caddis, black and green (16-18). The fish have been actively taking them on top when they aren't concentrating on the emergers. The water is so slow and clear so 6X-7X and absolutely no drag is a must or the fish will nose your fly and swim away. I'm sure I've had over a hundred "noses" the past week. The larger fish have been in the darker holes where you can't see the bottom.

Water Temp: low to mid 50's
Successfull flies used: green/black caddis, caddis emerger, griffiths gnat, parachute adams, sucker spawn, BHPT, green wooly bugger, small BWO.

I have seen some mayfly hatches but not as many as I thought I would have by now, mostly BWO's. I had a beautiful bow on today that took an adams parachute in a fast run. It was the most graceful jumping trout I've ever hooked up with. It got off after about 10 seconds and 3 jumps. It took drag on my 3 weight almost instantly. I'd guess it was roughly 16-17" with beautiful colors. Definately not a 2012 stockie.

Lehigh River, Carbon County PA - March 24 2012

I fished the Lehigh River near Mud Run this past Saturday. I biked in from Leslie Run DCNR parking area. I fished near the Mud Run trib down for about 2 miles. Outside air temp was about the same as the water, mid to high 50's. The Lehigh is very low right now so it is very wadeable. This was my first time fishing it so I can't compare the current but I can't imagine wading it over 500 cfs. I didn't know what to expect from the river. I started off with a BH Wooly Bugger and had a hit and a miss on the first cast. I fished approximately from 9 am to 2 pm. I ended up landing 2 brown trout. The one was quite nice, 16-17 inches. Both were caught on the bugger. I found various slow pools where I anticipated some rises but the only rise I got on the day was to a big bright pink indicator. Why would a trout hit it but not the real fly imitations I threw at it? Crazy. All in all, I enjoyed the Lehigh a lot. It makes me want to buy a drift boat and start fishing it more often. The colors on the trout were beautiful as well. I would assume that they are holdover or wild.

 Leslie Run

Bike with gear

Lehigh River

 1st Brown

2nd Brown



McMichael's Creek Delayed Harvest, March 15-16 2012

I fished March 15 and 16 on the McMichaels Creek DHALO section again as it is the only nearby stream open to fishing until the mid April opener. Weather has still been crazy. High's in the 60's. Water temp is mid 40's. I fished both days in the mid afternoon to late afternoon. Fishing is still excellent. I'm not sure if this excellent March fishing is going to make the season go by fast but at the moment, I can't imagine the pocono's have had a better March for fly fishing in years.

I landed over 20 fish in the 2 day period. Hot fly was a bh green wolly bugger. They kept hammering it like it was a roostertail every 2-3 casts. Also caught trout on sucker spawn, bhpt, black caddis, gg, and adams parachute. Fish were rising fairly consistently and even if they were concentrating on emergers, they still would take a dry if drifted properly. Like always, I had a lot of fish put their noses right on the fly and then reject it  but I'll take rejection over no interest at all. Most of the trout were bows with some browns but I finally caught a couple of the brookies. I hope this great fishing continues all the way through June at the least. We definately need some rain.

McMichael's Creek Delayed Harvest - MAR 7-10 2012

7 Mar - Fished BHPT (bead head pheasant tail) and BHHE (bead head hares ear) in slower runs. Creek level is down but still easily fishable. Only landed 1 trout and missed a couple of others. Trout hit the fly when I lifted the rod to recast (emerging). Outside air temp was nice. 50-60 degrees. I fished from 3-530 pm.

8 Mar - Fished further downstream from previous day. I found a nice fast run that held multiple trout. Landed 4-5, mostly rainbows. Missed 1/2 dozen as well. Fished BHPT and BHHE again. Most were caught on BHPT, size 16-18. Fished from 3-5 pm. Air temp was warmer with 60 + temps. Water measured 58 degrees but that was the top of the water where the sun was beating. I'm sure the bottom of the creek was still in the 40's. I used my laser temp meter.

10 Mar - Fished the same ten foot section for 3 hours, 3-6 pm. Landed over 12 trout. Most trout were pretty small with majority bows. Missed another 20 +. I started fishing a BHPT. Switched to an orange micro egg with no luck but I didn't add weight to it. The section I was fishing was around 3 feet deep with a swift current. I switched to a sucker spawn with a small split shot and my day got fun! After about 1 1/2 hours of educating the fish, I switched to a griffiths gnat because I kept seeing fish work the bank eating midges. Repeatedly taking trout on a dry fly in early March is a real treat! Early black stoneflies have been around in abundance during the afternoon the past week as well. Trout were rising to them occasionally but not with any consistency.

 Trout taken on BHPT - 8 March

Larger brown taken on griffiths gnat - 10 March

Winter Pocono fishing update - FEB 2012

I've been fishing a lot this winter due to the higher than normal temperatures. If it's sunny and 40 degrees or higher, I've been on the water. I've been out roughly a dozen times so far in 2012. I've mostly been fishing small mountain streams for brookies and browns. I've seen decent insect activity on the mountain streams when the temp's are above 40. I'm not the best at identifying but they were size 16-18 black stoneflies or caddis. Most of the wild trout caught this winter have been taken on a small #18 BWO parachute dry fly.

I tried the McMichael's Creek once on a nice day in January but did not get any action. The larger stream's water level has been average the past several weeks so it's easy to locate slow deep pools to drift a nymph.

I fished the BHC today. Water temperature was approximately 38-42 degrees. Insect activity was plentiful. Most of the bugs were sunning themselves on rocks but there were a fair amount fluttering above or on the water. There was enough bug activity that if the trout were looking up, they would have taken the easy meal. I caught one sucker today on a #16 black stonefly nymph. I added a #18 BHPT below it. I'm not sure if there were any trout where I fished today or if I was fishing with the wrong flies. There should be holdover trout because this section of the BHC was stocked last Oct and we've had a mild winter. Hopefully the water temp's start rising soon!

Bugs a plenty!

Black stonefly?

Small mountain stream trout

Small mountain stream

Sucker on the fly

Bug and a fly

Pocono Fall fly fishing - Nov 2011

Although I haven't posted much lately, I have been regularly fishing. I have been fishing small native streams the past 2 months. Devil's Hole has been the main stream I've been fishing along with some unnamed streams. At DH, I averaged 5 trout per 2 hour outing. The water temperature was 55 degrees in Oct but today DH was only 44 degrees. I didn't notice any insect activity while fishing DH the past 2 months but all trout were caught on dry flies. I used some rather ugly, size 16, flies that I didn't care if I lost in a high hanging tree. The quality didn't seem to matter nor did the presentation. The most important fact is that the trout don't see you first because the water is crystal clear. The size of trout weren't large but that is what you expect from a small native stream. Below is a pic of one of my catches today. I caught a couple others with even more color but my camera died after taking this pic. Outside air was in the high 30's but my fingers didn't stay cold once the fish started hitting!