Yuba Report?

[Matt Frey]

Hey Mike
Nice looking bug. Couple questions for you? What did you use for the antennae and are those rubber legs? And finally ... What technique do you like to use for blending your dubbing? Most of the time I use a jar of water and for smaller batches I use a small electric grinder.
Matt

[590Mike]

Matt PM sent

[Kurt P]

I fished the Yuba late last week. Got there at first light and tried indicator nymphing all morning. I know others regard this technique as remedial, but I just can't seem to get the hang of it…Am I using the wrong bug, am I not deep enough, am I using too much weight, not enough slack in the line to get a dead drift, too much slack in the line to set the hook when the indicator does twitch…??? So many variables, but I promised myself I’d stick with it all day until I figured it out. Well it rained all morning and I discovered a leak in my old rain coat and by noon my fingers were so cold it was getting hard to tie on my seemingly endless parade of failed bugs. I ran across the only 2 other guys I saw that day and within 20 minutes they landed a couple nice fish (yes, they were indicator nymphing as well). I slunk out of their sight to continue my stupid efforts in private, but nothing. I was getting pretty frustrated when the riffle I’d been flailing with bobbers, split shot and ugly underwater bugs came alive with rising fish. Not just sipping rises but whole-body-leaping-out-of-the-water rises. I gave up on my stupid promise to nymph all day long and, fighting back the panic that the BWO hatch would end (the sun was starting to come out), I managed to fumble a knot onto a #18 BWO sparkle dun. Second cast, and a nice fish came out of the water for it, then ran and jumped all over the river before I brought it in. Beautiful rainbow, just about 17 inches and beefy. Man, those Yuba fish fight well!
I still can’t indicator nymph, but it was a great day, after all.
Merry Christmas and good fishing,
Kurt

[590Mike]

Sounds like a day of fishing to me. Sometimes it can be really frustrating, other days nothing goes wrong. That was one beautiful fish. I fish with a couple old farts from time to time, (mostly when they need a designated driver). I can be first on the water and last off and they almost always outfish me and we can be doing the same thing, same fly. Oh and to top it off I tie for them.
Patch the hole in your raincoat and stick with it. I still suck somedays on indicators but the technique works. Snobs and purists be dammed ! And thanks for the report and the pic or as my other half calls it "fish porn"

[RJSFLYTRIP]

I fished the lower parts of the Yuba this past Monday. Fishing was decent but not red hot. Hooked 7 rainbows and landed 6 of them. All of the fish came on egg patterns with orange proving the most effective. Kept trying different stones and small baetis patterns but with not avail. Seems like the fish were podded up pretty good. When I found one fish I found at least another one close by. Pretty typical day of wading on the Yuba. Hope this helps for those of you heading up there after Christmas.

Fish Hard!