Yellow Creek

Hi All,

I mistakenly posted this to a year-old thread (must read instructions more carefully!) So I'd like to start this year's campfire discussion about my favorite little stream, Yellow Creek:

Jason,

Did you go in May/June 2012?

I've fished this creek for more than twenty years, but I haven't been since 2010 I think. I agree with others that the creek isn't as good as it's sometimes been, but it's gone through a few boom and bust cycles over the years. The original fencing (well before my time) apparently created a great fishery for trout that were often 14-16 inches.

I fished it for several years with great success for numbers, but mostly nothing over 12 or 13 inches. Then I discovered late fall there, and started to get one or two 14 or 15 inch trout every day during the October BWO hatches (and I don't mean 2-tailed Baetis, I mean genuine 3-tailed BWO's in size 16) Trout loved 'em, and their spinners. I still think fall may be best, as the bankside grasses die down, making both spotting fish and presentation easier. But YOU HAVE TO STAY LOW! I often fish on my knees in the water in the fall!

Truly big trout here are either caught in early season on a big nymph, or on a streamer, or at least that's what I have heard and believe must happen. I think they start to become fish-eaters at sixteen inches. My proof? Two or three times four or five-pound trout chased small fish I had on. But the the confirmation came in 2008 or 2009 when my friend Luong Tam and I crouched on opposite banks, both watching the same 21-inch brown trout sit there for an hour, waiting for the 10 or 11-inch trout it had clamped sideways in its mouth to die, so he could swallow it!

But, have the medium-sized trout gone? I doubt it. What stopped me fishing there was the weed died off in my favorite two hundred yards of the stream, where I knew literally every lie for a nice-sized fish. Eventually I got to know another stretch, and found two or three lies where good-sized browns held. Still haven't landed a really good one up there, just a single 13-incher, lost one bigger one.

So, you've probably guessed my message is, you have to serve your time here! I'm working on an article for Calif Flyfisher about Yellow Creek, so please, let me know what you think, and what you know, I'd really appreciate it. And don't worry, a little bit of fishing pressure may actually help this place, if we kill our pan-sized trout to let the others get bigger.

Stephen the Brit

I remember the big rehab of the creek many years ago.

I have a few friends who are excellent veteran fly fishers who fish it yearly.

They also talked about staying back and being stealthy.

I don't think this is a good place for the average angler...too dificult for most.

I know October is a prime month for many Nor Cal trout fisheries like Hat Creek.

So I can see how many would not think a places is a good fishery due to their lack of skill and knowledge to fish these kinds of waters.

I am not saying that Hat Creek and Yellow Creek don't need some help......

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