Are there any fish in the Yuba?

[TigerLilly]

A friend and I enjoyed a wonderful bluebird day fishing the Lower Yuba in tee shirts! Tried everything but grenades. Caught exactly no fish. Heard rumor of a guide getting a very few on deeeeep nymphs and indis. Seemed everyone else was sharing our success rate. A very few ragged salmon wallowing around. Water looks perfect. A tiny sprinkle of mayflies but no rises.
Yesterday went to Lower Sac and both of us hooked up within 15 minutes fishing the same stuff as we did all day on the Y. What goes on with those gold country fish? I've had some great days there but the Y routinely seems like the most discouraging place to fish in the Valley.

[M Duper]

I go to the Yuba with a fly rod and box of flies and watch the water work. Take another walk. Stop, watch some more. Take another walk and watch a bit more Stop, eat lunch. And then watch some more. I always learn something when i do that....

[amoeba]

A friend and I enjoyed a wonderful bluebird day fishing the Lower Yuba in tee shirts! Tried everything but grenades. Caught exactly no fish. Heard rumor of a guide getting a very few on deeeeep nymphs and indis. Seemed everyone else was sharing our success rate. A very few ragged salmon wallowing around. Water looks perfect. A tiny sprinkle of mayflies but no rises.
Yesterday went to Lower Sac and both of us hooked up within 15 minutes fishing the same stuff as we did all day on the Y. What goes on with those gold country fish? I've had some great days there but the Y routinely seems like the most discouraging place to fish in the Valley.

To answer your question as to "what goes on...?":

1. fishing pressure/clear skies/low water on the Yuba = picky fish. It has a fair amount of fish, but it isn't the lower Sac in terms of numbers or size of the system. It gets pounded and then some.
2. there are fish there, at times they may not bite for you or anybody else. hatch/conditions/fish action, varies daily.
3. frequent reports on this website by a lone guide about 20-fish days, hawking discounts does not = reality. You don't see any of clients verifying those numbers, do you? Take it FWIW, considering the source.

[DAVID95670]

i heard it best from an old guy at The Flyshop, guides and flyshops perpetuate the myths of steelhead and in this case trout. Just look at bill kiene's posts hahahahahaha

[cyama]

No bullshit on that boat.
"3. frequent reports on this website by a lone guide about 20-fish days, hawking discounts does not = reality. You don't see any of clients verifying those numbers, do you? Take it FWIW, considering the source."
I can verify that there is no bullshit on that boat or from that great guide. I can also verify that hooking 20-25 fish is a normal day. He knows his rivers and is a great guy and guide.
That said the Yuba is pretty slow if you are on foot. There are people floating from YOA down to the bridge. Some areas are better than others if you know where to go.... There are an unusual amount of fin clipped steelhead being hooked on the Yuba.

[Hogan Brown]

Tiger Lilly don't get discouraged on the Yuba it is a tough river to wade fish. I was born and raised on it and it is not an easy wade fishery. It is deceptively wader friendly even at the low winter flows we have now. As a guide in a boat I expect 10-20+ fish most days but there are days I scratch out 5 and days I hammer out 20++ so it all equals out in the end. The river has about 900 fish per pile is what I have always heard but I have no scientific reference for this other then it has always seemed about right to me. Fish are sensitive to hatches, weather, flows, and all the normal things but if you know where they like to be at various flows in various conditions you can string some consistency together with your catch rate. It takes a long time to learn that river on foot and where to be when. Guides in boats have a huge advantage no matter what the flow based on the amount of water they can cover in a day.

[Dan LeCount]

Pay attention to stream flow and water temperature. Its has a huge influence on where the fish like to hold.

[amoeba]

No bullshit on that boat.
"3. frequent reports on this website by a lone guide about 20-fish days, hawking discounts does not = reality. You don't see any of clients verifying those numbers, do you? Take it FWIW, considering the source."
I can verify that there is no bullshit on that boat or from that great guide. I can also verify that hooking 20-25 fish is a normal day. He knows his rivers and is a great guy and guide.
That said the Yuba is pretty slow if you are on foot. There are people floating from YOA down to the bridge. Some areas are better than others if you know where to go.... There are an unusual amount of fin clipped steelhead being hooked on the Yuba.

Ahhh, how refreshing - a loosely-monitored website which allows guide advertising outside the classified subforum as well as mild profanity? As long as we're on that tune - and I'm all for it (although this is a private website, and the owner is not subject to constitutional freedom of speech) - please permit me to respond in kind:

That boat is sinking in bullshit, and this poster can't verify anything of the kind, he was not the client that day or any other day (doesn't claim to be either). Ummm, yahhhh, in addition to the big fish numbers, and the lack of substantiating client reports, there are the frequency of "open dates" and "discounts", and so forth from literally every one of said guide's posts, suggesting that guide in question's business is, well, not so busy. Hardly a theme to instill confidence.

I also disagree with the rest of this post, regarding the slowage of fishing on foot versus a boat (foot does much better), and the frequency of fin-clipped fish (I haven't seen a one in hundreds of fish caught there over a period of 20+ years, and reports of such from anyone else, on this website forum or elsewhere are extremely uncommon). Learn to get out of a boat (better yet, add a regulation preventing fishing from a boat, ala Deschutes), cover water carefully and thoughtfully, and you will catch fish.

[Nooduke]

"Envy is the ulcer of the soul."
- Socrates

[TigerLilly]

No bullshit on that boat.

I can verify that there is no bullshit on that boat or from that great guide. I can also verify that hooking 20-25 fish is a normal day. He knows his rivers and is a great guy and guide.

I haven't been on this BBS long enough to know what "that" boat is, but probably every one of us have gotten different reports from clients and guides who shared the same boat on the same day. I did a guide float on the Sac and at the take out our guide was enthusiastic about what a great day we had and the other guides were just as enthused. Us sports gathered in a different group and could only listen in disbelief at what great anglers we were and how many fish we caught. Its a game as well as a business. No fishermen, especially a guide wants to be low on the list among his peers.