Yuba report 9/28

[yubaman]

The lure of the Yuba dragged me back up again yesterday. I think it has been about 6 months since I was up here last. I don't know what it is about this river that continually grabs me despite conditions which may not be optimum at times. The flows are down around 750 cfs, and the river now looks very odd at these flows. A hydrologist I am not, but I must say the last couple of years have created a stream bed that has accommodated much larger flows over an extended period of time. So much of the river is now void of much character right now, long straight runs with nothing to them. I'm kinda thinking that an event with about 6,000 cfs might gouge some character into the stream bed? My guess is that the trout population is low right now. I did see some rising fish yesterday, in confined areas, and caught a couple on dries. They were taking size 18-20 caddis emergers and nothing else. Sub surface, they took an S & M nymph . . . small stuff.

I fished from the top of the island, down to the clay banks area, so I got my exercise for the day in. I only saw 2 dead salmon and 1 redd in this stretch, which concerns me. I hope that there is a large, late push of salmon making there way up. We usually see at least several dozen salmon in the river right now, even when the run is small.

The Yuba always seems to rebound. It is a great piece of water, hopefully sooner. After the big washout of 10 years ago, in 2-3 years the fishing was fantastic. I'm guessing that a decent salmon run would bring in a good push of fish. I only saw 1 other fisherman yesterday.

Here is a nice sunrise on the river from yesterday . . .

14387




Bob

[Jake O]

I'll save everyone a trip to the Y. Unless they are in a different part of the river (fished similar area where Bob did which historically is good spawning habitat) the Yuba is by and large devoid of salmon. River, spawning areas/conditions look great, but saw two reds that almost appeared as though they were abandoned or the salmon had already died (they didn't look fully dug out and only one salmon in the vicinity) and saw a total of three salmon swimming up river. Covered a good amount of water. While the spawn can certainly be late(r) this year, I would think that with the low flows on the Yuba and relatively higher flows on the feather this year the Yuba will see a very poor salmon return. Of course, it is possible that its late this year, or perhaps there are more salmon stacked up down below Hammond grove--don't know. All I know is this is the least amount of salmon I have seen in this part of the river this time of the year, ever. I'd personally give it a couple weeks, and hope for the best. My two cents.

Did see some nice caddis hatches early morning however.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I would guess that the Lower Yuba River is best in the Fall, Winter (depending on the rain) and Spring (depending on the runoff).

I have heard from the CA DF&W that there the largest population of trout is above the Hwy 20 Bridge.

When we get really high flows it usually grades the river very flat with little character.

I know that 30+ years ago we had more Steelhead and more Salmon in the river.

The LYR is the best wild trout stream near Sacramento.



Some might look at Putah Creek now because it too has very good protective regulations and no planting.