9/22 - Lower Yuba River report

[yubaman]

Seeing that flows are down around 1,000 cfs, I was very anxious to see what the Yuba looked like, and of course, fish as well. As seems to be par for the fishing their these days, I fished for 5 hours and caught 2 small fish. One was very skinny. I have had the same type of results the last 3 trips, and in talking with others, seems to be about the norm. I took two rods with me and fished both on top and subsurface. I fished my new 5 weight Winston B-IIIX Plus today, and I gotta say, I love this rod.

I did not see any salmon yet either. None even staging in the deeper holes. The egg bite looks to be another late one this year. The water is gin clear, and the river looks to be in good condition.

It seems like the fish population is pretty sparse right now, after the floods. I turned lots of rocks, and did not see any bugs, but what would you expect after last winter. There were a number of stonefly shucks on the rocks, great to see, and a decent midge hatch in the morning. Much of the streambed is featureless at this flow, just long straight slots, with a short riffle every 500 yards or so. The inseam at the island is nearly dry at these flows!

It will be interested to see how many salmon come up this year, and if the larger trout and steelhead follow them in from somewhere else. I fear that the fish population is at a low point after the drought and flood, and might need a couple of years to regenerate. It might be time to give the Yuba a break for awhile. This is my uneducated observation, which I hope is incorrect, but I fear is not.

It was a lot nicer to fish in 73 degree weather versus 103 degrees we has the last couple of trips!!!

[cdevine]

Thanks for the report! I'm asking because I honestly don't know and I've rarely fished the lower yuba but any theories on why the flooding had such a devastating impact on this particular fishery? (at least ancedotaly?) Just curious what people have to say because this fishery seems near and dear to many. And did this happen in 1997 as well? Does anybody recall.

So many of our norcal/sierra/easter sierra rivers are on the rebound and in many ways are fishing as good for me and others today as they did 5-10 years ago. Time will heal but I know its a bummer for a lot of you guys on the lower yuba at least in the near term.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

When the Fall salmon are paired up and spawning be sure to use a nymph with you egg imitation.

What combination do you use?

[Idadon]

Some free stone rivers/streams take a beating in REALLY heavy flows. The rocks tumble and destroy bugs or they just simply get washed away. Happened up here in Idaho in the late nineties and took a couple of years to get things back to normal. High fast water might be good for farmers and maybe fish coming back from saltwater but not so good for bugs or resident fish that depend on them for food. Give me Normal Years, this trying to break a drought in one winter sucks!

[cdevine]

Idahon,

Thanks that makes a lot of sense with the aquatic life destroyed. The West Walker river is a free flow river with lots of granite and the 1997 floods devastated it. Appreciate the response.

[peterkoistinen]

Seeing that flows are down around 1,000 cfs, I was very anxious to see what the Yuba looked like, and of course, fish as well. As seems to be par for the fishing their these days, I fished for 5 hours and caught 2 small fish. One was very skinny. I have had the same type of results the last 3 trips, and in talking with others, seems to be about the norm. I took two rods with me and fished both on top and subsurface. I fished my new 5 weight Winston B-IIIX Plus today, and I gotta say, I love this rod.

I did not see any salmon yet either. None even staging in the deeper holes. The egg bite looks to be another late one this year. The water is gin clear, and the river looks to be in good condition.

It seems like the fish population is pretty sparse right now, after the floods. I turned lots of rocks, and did not see any bugs, but what would you expect after last winter. There were a number of stonefly shucks on the rocks, great to see, and a decent midge hatch in the morning. Much of the streambed is featureless at this flow, just long straight slots, with a short riffle every 500 yards or so. The inseam at the island is nearly dry at these flows!

It will be interested to see how many salmon come up this year, and if the larger trout and steelhead follow them in from somewhere else. I fear that the fish population is at a low point after the drought and flood, and might need a couple of years to regenerate. It might be time to give the Yuba a break for awhile. This is my uneducated observation, which I hope is incorrect, but I fear is not.

It was a lot nicer to fish in 73 degree weather versus 103 degrees we has the last couple of trips!!!

"...It seems like the fish population is pretty sparse right now, after the floods...."

Do we think there are actually less fish, IOW fish were killed, buried, washed downstream, etc by the floods?

or...

The fish survived the flood, and are still living in the river, but are harder to find and catch?

My guess is the fish are mostly all still there.

[yubaman]

That is entirely possible and I hope correct. I am thinking that the lack of insect life, food for them, has caused either a migration out of there to another water, or death. When I catch a 6" fish that looks almost too skinny to sustain itself, I can't think of what might be happening to the larger fish requiring more food.

I think we'll have a better answer after the salmon spawn. Hope for the best.

[cyama]

The problem with the Yuba these days is the Yuba County Water Agency. They are supposed to protect the people of their county by providing flood control. Their systems are outdated and they are now just using the water to sell to Central California. All the dam systems on the Yuba are outdated. Bullard Bar could be updated to hold more water. Yet the only upgrades they have done are PG&E upgrades so they can also produce more power. I was hoping SYRCL would be on top of this, but have not seen anything on the FERC relicensing. I know Jonny B is aware of this but the FERC relicensing is going on now and nothing seems to be happening. Englebright can only hold 70,000 AF and once it is full it just goes over the top. This produce the flows over 60,000 CFS and rolls all the rocks. Daguerre is outdated as well. Terrible fish passage and supposed to hold back silt. Probably built in the early 1900s This is one area where a bigger dam would benefit California. Just look at the Lower Sac and how the bottom releases have helped the fishery. An EIR is required and should be fought!!! http://www.ycwa-relicensing.com/default.aspx The only people profiting are YCWA and PG&E.

[Troutstalker55B]

The problem with the Yuba these days is the Yuba County Water Agency. They are supposed to protect the people of their county by providing flood control. Their systems are outdated and they are now just using the water to sell to Central California. All the dam systems on the Yuba are outdated. Bullard Bar could be updated to hold more water. Yet the only upgrades they have done are PG&E upgrades so they can also produce more power. I was hoping SYRCL would be on top of this, but have not seen anything on the FERC relicensing. I know Jonny B is aware of this but the FERC relicensing is going on now and nothing seems to be happening. Englebright can only hold 70,000 AF and once it is full it just goes over the top. This produce the flows over 60,000 CFS and rolls all the rocks. Daguerre is outdated as well. Terrible fish passage and supposed to hold back silt. Probably built in the early 1900s This is one area where a bigger dam would benefit California. Just look at the Lower Sac and how the bottom releases have helped the fishery. An EIR is required and should be fought!!! http://www.ycwa-relicensing.com/default.aspx The only people profiting are YCWA and PG&E.

Well said and absolutely the truth, all of it. - J.

[PV_Premier]

My guess is that the fish left the upper river, either by force (flows) or choice/force (lack of food). I hear the bug life below Daguerre is more abundant and if that's true I bet that at least some of the bigger fish are there.

My impression of the Yuba was always that the fish per mile numbers were lower than some other rivers. Certainly lower than the Sac, and maybe the Truckee too. But I don't know that for a fact.

Someone told me of a monitoring study that was done on the Yuba years ago suggesting those fish moved around a lot, some as many as 10-20 miles upstream or down a month. This was just in passing and so I don't have a study date or name to attribute it to.

I bet at least a few of the Yuba fish might now be in the Feather. Others are likely in the belly of some stripers. Some got killed. Overall it's depressing but I'm hoping the rebound situation will be even better than it was before. I'm also hoping for a bit more modest winter that keeps flows more stable. That river was high, chocolate milk for much of January to April and the fish aren't likely to stick around through that.

One bit of good news is that if there's a decent salmon return, those little trout will grow a good bit.