Yuba River Late Report

[flyguy1]

A friend and myself fished the Yuba River on April 13 with Guide Ryan Miller. Ryan is a awesome guide and worked very hard at getting us onto the fish. The first fish of the day was a 19 inch rainbow caught very close to the launch site. The next fish caught was a hot 23 inch crome steehead. Both the 19 incher and the steehead were caught by my buddy, Guy. About five minutes after Guy landed his steely, I hooked into another steely that turned and ran to the other side, and snapped me off on 4x tippet. The fish looked as if it was about the same size as the one Guy got. For the remainder of the day Guy had four other hookups and landed one, while I hooked up about six more times and was able to land three. All in all we had and good day and hooked some good size fish. Other than the previously mentioned fish above, all the fish caught ranged in size of 8 to 14 inches, and all faught like crazy. Some bigger ones were lost due to LDR. Others we talked to on the river, were having a tough day. I guess that just shows having a good guide will improve your odds a catching fish.

Thanks for the great day Ryan

I would post some pics, but do not know how to.



Scott

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

I think the Valley rivers will be good for trout and small steelhead till it heats up in June.

[BigBuddha]

If you don't mind my asking, what flies were they hitting, and in what sizes?

[Ryan Miller]

That day, the fish were up to their usual antics... happily eating one pattern, then an hour goes by and they are looking for something else. They kept us changing throughout most of the day. Bugs of choice included stones (big and small, dark and yellow), Fox's Poopah (tan), a variety of mayflies, small profile... Hogan's S&M. FBPT's and big slice of being methodical.

I hope this has helped, if you would like more details you can PM me for a current blog posting.

Here was a smokin' hot fish that was man-handled by Guy.



Ryan

[Mik]

Hey Ryan. I work with Nessa at Liberty Mutual. She thinks she can catch more fish than you. Anyway, she was telling me about your guide service and I thought the name was familiar from the board.

Great picture! I know those fish are pretty fiesty in the Yuba. Is it pretty easy to distinguish between the trout and steelhead?

[Ryan Miller]

I hope to open a can of worms with this one... Bottom line is that it is hard to distinguish between steelhead and trout on the Yuba and even on the Sac.

The Yuba run of steelhead are wild, there is no hatchery on that river; therefore, we seldom see the "fin-clipped" fish. For the most part I look at the lateral line, color and the fight. There are no spots below the lateral line on this fish. No, there is nothing scientific about that, but it fits a stereotype.

Yuba fish are notorious for putting up their dukes. This fish brought out the Nike Air Pumps and slammed a Red Bull... the power was unquestionable. According to DFG anything over 16" (maybe 18") is a steelhead... that is BULL.

Regardless, your guess is as good as mine. Scale samples and odalith studies are the only true means of ID.

Thanks for reading.

Ryan

[Notch]

Nice fish, Miller. The steelhead vs. trout question is tough on rivers like the Yuba that have big trout as well as a few steelhead. I think the color on that fish gives it away, but I'm sure you have caught chrome trout like that on the Y that are smaller. I heard some biologist with DF&G did some genetic sampling of fish from many anadromous waters, including the Yuba, and came the the conclusion that Deer Creek was the most prolific steelhead stream that he sampled. He figured that out by catching trout with a fly, mostly small ones, and extracted their otoliths to figure out if their parents were steelhead. In any case, a big trout/steelhead like that is awesome and you need to take me out sometime and show me how it's done. Later.

Ps - nice shorts!

[flyguy1]

Notch

Just to let you know, the person that did the shuttle for us on the day that the steely/trout was caught even commented on those nice 1970s plaid shorts that Ryan was wearing. Ryan, just keep wearing those shorts, the shorts paid off by putting us on the fish.

scott