1/25 Yuba Report

[Kurt P]

Fishing is stupid.

[Ed Wahl]

Amen Brother!

[medfly]

ha! glad someone else got frustrated on the yuba this weekend, fished sat from 11:30 to 4:30 above the bridge, only one LDR on a rubber legs-PT double set-up, decent rises for a few hours throughout the day, just couldnt get a strike, wouldnt have been too frustrated had people around not been catching beautiful fish, in fact, one riser i was working for an hour, just couldnt get him fooled, finally some guy walks up while i am eating my orange and two casts, fish on! couldnt believe it, humbling to say the least, i guess some days you just cant do right

on a positive note, skwalas and BWOs were out in force, fish were on the surface, saw about 5 or so fish landed (by others), mostly all on nymphs, good day none the less, although, still too many people out there for my liking

[loganmike]

Fishing is stupid.

Best report I have read in awhile!

Thanks

me

[esummers]

Fished on Saturday from 11:30 until dark. I tied on a BWO dry at the car, walked upstream....3rd cast, BINGO! A beautiful 23" bow that was sitting in some really skinny water. I'm surprised I set the hook in time because I was so shocked. He made 3 or 4 huge jumps, but no big runs. Probably a good thing with the number of people down stream from me. When I landed him I noticed a beadhead nymph was stuck in the corner of his mouth - so I gotta great fish and a free fly! Pretty slow with the BWO from then on. I should have switched to a Skwala and pumped that the rest of the day. Hooked a couple of other fish, but it was pretty slow for me the rest of the day. The memory of that bow will stick with me for awhile. What a beautiful fish and to catch it on BWO, size 16 dun, was the cherry on top.

When I moved here from Michigan in 2004 I had read about the Yuba in Fly Fishing magazine and decided to give it a try. My first time out I hooked about 1/2 dozen large rainbows that were the hottest I've ever seen. I've been lucky enough to hook bows from New Zealand to Montana to Michigan and I've never seen hotter bows than those on the Yuba. I was in love. Then the Yuba gets scourred in 2005\2006. What a huge bummer. So glad to see it's bouncing back.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

In the big drought of the late 1970s in CA veteran fly fishers Joe Patterson and Wally Westlake actually discovered the wild Rainbow trout fishery on the Lower Yuba River.

Joe was the Cortland Line Company Rep in those days and reported his findings to the local fly shops.

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=westlwa01

In the late '70s local fly fishers like Al Perryman, Bob Long, Ed Letrell, Mike Ziem, Dick Kiene, Galen Geller, myself and others all enjoyed the find in that big drought cycle that exposed everything.

In years before that the water this time of year was just too high for good fly fishing.

Like this year the low flows allow people to fly fish for the trout and spawned out Steelhead with those great insect hatches.

The Skawala/Skwala? stonefly is a big deal on sunny afternoons now but early one like now we have run into a big mayfly that hatches mid-day. Maybe a #10 Grey Drake? You can use an unweighted black #12 nymph to fish as an emerger while these big drakes are coming off.

Back then things were not as evolved as they are today. Some like Ed Letrel, of the CA DF&G, used big yellow Humphys for the Skwala dry imatation.

That was 30 years ago.......

[Bryan Morgan]

Met an older gentleman above the bridge who appeared to have the whole tailout to himself. Ask'd if I could join him. I was dredging the bottom, and I had a Skwala land on my shoulder, and I tossed it out into the cuurrent, and woulnd'nt you know it, a fish took it. I threw a hopper pattern with clipped legs for a while, and had one take. The abdomen was pretty much the same size and shape, but I believe it rode a bit high in the water. If you can make it to the Yuba, throw a Skwala dry, the hatch is early, but it might be woth it.