Tony Buzolich
06-05-2010, 04:52 PM
If you haven't gotten out on the Feather or the Yuba lately things are changing fast. The flow has been running a bit high below Yuba City because of the Yuba river's input added to an increased flow on the Feather itself. This morning at 6:00AM the Yuba was flowing at 3500cfs. Most of the year it stays around 800-900cfs. This afternoon the Yuba is at 5200cfs, turning brown, and going up. This doesn't help for stable fishing conditions.
This morning my friend Jim May and I got on the water a little after 5:00. We started with topwater flies over a few of the flats as we were seeing lots of fish boiling and chasing bait. Sadly, we couldn't connect on top.
As we moved along to some of our other spots things were still slow even with regular sinking lines. We're using bigger six to eight inch flies now because of all the shad in the river We moved to one area that has a deep drop-off and started marking bigger fish scattered throughout the water column and I finally get a good grab right at the boat. The fish didn't take off like a normal striper but just sort of stopped and shook it's head. Jim yells, "It's a SALMON". Sure enough, a bright chrome salmon. Eating a six inch striper fly in fifteen feet of water wasn't anything like fishing them in the riffles.
After a few laps around the boat we were able to get the hook out and send her on her way. What a surprise that was. We continued on up to the rapids and did pick up a couple of small stripers along the way.
On the way back Jim cast to a small slot near the clay banks and instantly got a grab. This one too acted differently thinking we hooked a shad. Good fight, even a jump, but not enough to really put a bend in Jim's 9 weight. A steelhead! Maybe a trout about about 16"! Another surprise. Realize, Jim is using a big seven inch purple/white striper fly.
We work our way back to the ramp with a couple more small stripers but over-all a fairly slow day. Is it the change in water flows or the drop in temperature from the snow melt?
With this big increase in flow coming down the Yuba it may be a while till things stabilize.
This morning my friend Jim May and I got on the water a little after 5:00. We started with topwater flies over a few of the flats as we were seeing lots of fish boiling and chasing bait. Sadly, we couldn't connect on top.
As we moved along to some of our other spots things were still slow even with regular sinking lines. We're using bigger six to eight inch flies now because of all the shad in the river We moved to one area that has a deep drop-off and started marking bigger fish scattered throughout the water column and I finally get a good grab right at the boat. The fish didn't take off like a normal striper but just sort of stopped and shook it's head. Jim yells, "It's a SALMON". Sure enough, a bright chrome salmon. Eating a six inch striper fly in fifteen feet of water wasn't anything like fishing them in the riffles.
After a few laps around the boat we were able to get the hook out and send her on her way. What a surprise that was. We continued on up to the rapids and did pick up a couple of small stripers along the way.
On the way back Jim cast to a small slot near the clay banks and instantly got a grab. This one too acted differently thinking we hooked a shad. Good fight, even a jump, but not enough to really put a bend in Jim's 9 weight. A steelhead! Maybe a trout about about 16"! Another surprise. Realize, Jim is using a big seven inch purple/white striper fly.
We work our way back to the ramp with a couple more small stripers but over-all a fairly slow day. Is it the change in water flows or the drop in temperature from the snow melt?
With this big increase in flow coming down the Yuba it may be a while till things stabilize.