Yuba... Caddis, Rainbow's, Snakes, and Scorpions!!!

[Spicytuna1]

Made the suicide run Friday night after work in hopes of getting into some evening risers on the Yuba. Knowing the flows were as high as they were we decided to go after it anyway. The fish were rising earlier than we expected, the numbers were decent as well. Unfortunately with the higher flows we were not able to find a good concentration of fish. The caddis made it even tougher; I have not seen that many caddis in the air in a long time. So you add sparse fish and more livies than they could eat, these factors made the evening bite tough. I was able to manage two cookie cutter 15"s that though they were 20"s though..

Once it got dark I headed over to the bank to grab my beer to have a scorpion scurry out from underneath it. I had no idea there were scorpions along the river. I have heard of Rattlers but never Scorpions. After the scorpion encounter I grab my vest off the ground to find a coiled up baby rattler. The snake was no more than 12" from what I heard the younger rattlers are more poisonous than the adults.

I thought I would inform everyone on the dangers that can be out there; definitely have to keep your head on a swivel around the Yuba from now on.

[Jgoding]

Younger rattlers aren't more poisonous in the sense they have more toxic venom, just that they have the tendency to empty out their entire venom load into you where an adult wouldn't. Scorpions can be found all over the state and they do love rocky/sandy areas but most people don't encounter them on any type of regular basis unless you're looking for them. I do have some fairly large specimens from Mendocino county I believe from the days when I used to collect insects etc... for 4H and as a hobby but most species I've found in California are relatively small and would be hard to notice.

Blueracer and I ran into a rattler slightly smaller than that size on the American a few weeks back so yes, be careful. It didn't rattle either but was more interested in getting away from us then posturing or striking and you could hear the rattle hitting the rocks as it moved along but it was a very beautfully marked snake in my opinion.

[Rich Morrison]

Yes...actually a large percentage of bites from adult rattle snakes are dry...in other words no venom is injected. They use it as a defense mechansim but they are well aware that you are not a potential source of food and so will not waste a valuable resource on you. The juvenilles don't have that figured out yet. And a juvenille rattler usually does not have a formed rattle yet - the end of their tails are black and white striped.