Lower Yuba

[DFrink]

Anyone have a report for the fishing above the Hwy 20 bridge? I have Monday off and would love to visit the Yuba (haven't fished it in over a year) but really hate the crowds. Thought I could walk upstream a bit? PM's welcome.

Thanks.

[Adam Grace]

You might have to walk up pretty far. I would expect many people to go fish the Yuba on Monday. Good luck and have fun.

[DFrink]

That's what I thought. The tube on a lake may be the best option. Thanks Adam.

[Troutsource]

I had a decent day Tuesday -- 4 fish from 10" to 14" above the bridge. I'll just cut and paste it below. Water is low and very navigable. Easy to cross.


Fished above the bridge Tuesday from about 1:00 - 5:30. Caught four 10"-14" rainbows/steelhead(?) -- 3 on a dry skwala, 1 on an orange soft hackle. The skwala window was roughly from 1:30 - 3:30, and seemed to close when the clouds started to set in. There were also a decent number of PED's (?). It was a breezy day, which made fishing a little tough. The water was slightly off color, I assume due to the recent rain.

All of the fish were silvery and the three bigger ones had some sort of parasites on the pelvic fins -- sea lice ...thus, steelhead? I don't recall seeing parasites like this on the Yube before. The parasites look like what turns up in Google Images for sea lice. Here's the picture I took (didn't realize they were parasites until after I took the photo -- thought they were fish crap). I may have chopped the little guy up a bit -- his appendages look detached in this photo. On the next fish, I looked more closely and the appendages were actually attached to the body.
http://www.kiene.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=83&pictureid=586

The fish also seemed guant (see below), as if they were spawned out steelhead, but the colors were bright and there appeared to be sea lice on them.
http://www.kiene.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=83&pictureid=587

Skwala photo. There were good numbers, but not as many as I recall seeing during a hatch a few years ago. But it was windy, so maybe they were just tougher to see.
http://www.kiene.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=83&pictureid=588

[JasonB]

So I finally made it to fish the lower Yuba for the first time today. My wife and I both explored a bit upstream of the hwy bridge and here's some rough numbers for ya:

Saw exactly 1 Caddis

Skwallas were present but not exactly abundant

Mayflies were more abundant

Anglers were WELL represented, and could be found in pretty much any fishy looking water. (at times you might have to look a bit harder to find one, but mostly just about any decent riffle had some folks working some angle or another)

Fish were not to be left out of the party, and showed themselves at times to be quite active. Most were smallish, but I had one that could have gone over 18" took my dry but broke off immediately, and landed one just a tad smaller than that. (I think I caught my first steelhead too!). Such gorgeous and spirited fish too!

Seems like the bite would come and go in spurts, at times was quite good and others I would have sworn that there were no fish in there. We used a few different bugs and fished lots of water trying to get a feel for the river, in the end ALL of our action came on dry/dropper combo with the dropper (bwo mostlly) getting the lion share of the attention.

So all in all for a couple of first timers, I'd say the fishing was pretty good but if you're afraid of the crowds I'd look elsewhere. I was pretty surprised just how many people were there on a thursday afternoon, can't imagine it on a holiday weekend. I'll probably be back, hopefully with a boat
JB

[DFrink]

Jason,

Your comments about the number of anglers is why I haven't fished the Yuba in so long, can't stand it. That was a Thursday, imagine a Monday (Holiday)! I'll be getting on the float tube somewhere else instead, thanks for the heads up.

Dan

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

With the low water and winter hatches with wild Rainbow trout it is going to be crowded....

[Adam Grace]

I'm on the Yuba right now, taking a break and playing with my cell phone. I got here late, around 10. I haven't seen many skwallas. There were some march browns around noon. I got a couple on a large bwo nymph. I naked a couple nice ones on a streamer. A couple fish just surfaced, I'll post more when I get home.

[chemdoc]

There have been quite a few anglers on the river, but I did get up there last week for a few hours. I am often skunked on the Yuba, but managed a few nice fish on a skwala dry that day. The longest measured in at 19 inches, but was a bit skinny.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b369/chemdoc/IMG_0043.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b369/chemdoc/IMG_0046.jpg

[Ed Wahl]

Nice looking fish there Phil. Possibly the skinny one is a downstreamer steelie?

Adam, when streamer fishing naked do you succumb to the fashionable need to wear boots or do you hold to tradition and go completely in the buff? :D

Dude I just couldn't stop myself.

Ed

[Woodman]

I cancelled a few meetings tomorrow and plan to head up. Anyone fished below the bridge lately. Any reports with respect to the crowds and/or fishing success?

[Sierrapacific]

We fished above the bridge today and encountered about four other
fishermen. I spent most of my time taking photos, but I did catch
one 15" Rainbow on a Skwala dry. A fair number of bugs are crawling
around.

[royewest]

I fished above the bridge today from 11am to dusk. I think a dozen folks had the same idea: what a beautiful Thursday, I bet I'll have the Yuba to myself. Fortunately, everyone was friendly and courteous and there's lots of river to fish.

I've been fishing the Yuba for a couple of years now and thought I knew what low flows were like, but these levels surprised me. A lot less fishable deep water (I was looking for depth below riffles because the water's so clear), but with all the easy crossings I hiked up to within sight of the UC facility for the first time, which I'd always wanted to do.

I got two nice fish midday, one about 14" on a very yellow stonefly nymph near the bridge, the other a good deal larger up around the bend on a small flash-back pheasant tail. Seems like all the folks I met up with were fishing dries -- there were lots of smallish fish smacking the surface -- and most were pretty frustrated about it. It was very windy. Fellow across from me caught a nice fish on a dry. Others claimed about the same numbers.

Plus: A lovely day to be on the water, caught a couple of nice fish, and ended up with more flies than I started (unusual for me) -- a willow I got snagged in had fouled someone else ahead of me.

Minus: The hat I've fished in for years in all weather was suddenly gusted off my head and I sadly watched it drift down the river for 5 or 10 min with nothing to be done about it. My wife is pleased (it was getting pretty ratty).

[El Rey]

I fished below the bridge on Wednesday, 2/22, and I have to confess that I got skunked. Two or three skwalas on the water, plus only a few mayflies, but I saw only two fish rise to them. On such a beautiful sunny day I expected to see more bugs.

Had a great day with several nice fish ten days ago (report elsewhere on the board).

We should be seeing March Browns soon if this weather holds.

Good luck.

Harlan