Yuba / the biggest damn trout I've ever seen on a stream

Spent three hours at the Highway 20 bridge last night throwing hoppers and Stimulators. Caught 2 :D , missed 2 :o , had 2 more that refused at the last minute :? .

The most interesting part, though, happened while I was sitting on the south shore above the bridge / right below the first island. There's a very big and complicated eddy there, and I was watching the occasional rise in the eddy when the biggest damn rainbow I've ever seen in moving water made a methodical porpoise-like rise that brought more than half of it out of the water--sequentially. :shock:

I can only guess that it was in the ballpark of 10 pounds or so--give or take a big margin for error.

Yes, I then spent the next 20 minutes trying to get a decent drift in those braided currents. :evil: No, I didn't see the fish again. :(

A month or two back, there was a long exchange on the board about whether the local fish in the Yuba still bother going out to sea or not. If this one didn't, then it was the king of the river.

Yes, I know there are some salmon in the Yuba, but I'm pretty sure this was a rainbow.)

By the way, air temp in the mid-90's, water temp around 54, and the last one I caught was a little longer than the opening of my net, so 16 or 17".

Mike

Hi Mike,

I'm sure there are some monsters in a few of those holes throughout the river. I've seen several great fish like that in the lower water too below Deguarre.

This morning on the Yuba there were quite a few salmon moving over the gravel bars near the mouth and the trussles and once these guys get up higher those big trout will start to key in on those eggs.

I think a few steelhead in a lot of streams don't return to the sea if there's plenty of food supply around. They lowflow of the Feather sure has a few.
TONY

In the fall, winter and spring there are some sea-run Rainbows/Steelhead in there.

About 15 years ago in September my fishing partner, Mel Jeffs, and I where fishing our way downstream from the hwy 20 bridge in a low flow of 600cfs.

I was fishing a rubber legs nymph deep on a sink tip in the holes and hooked a big fish that swam around slow and deep. I thought it was a old salmon or big sucker becuase it did not jump. Finally landed it and it was about a 10 pound Rainbow/Steelhead.

There are big ones below the foundation too. Look down from that bluff
and they can be spotted.

I was talking to man who has rafted/snorkled the river from bridge to River Front. Now all I see is suckers, squaws, occas salmon, steelhead, trout, but this guy said the lower end has some real dandy rainbows in it.

Tracy