I had to get up to the Yuba yesterday, I guess more importantly, I just had to fish before we go up to the Eel and the OP here in the next couple of weeks. I went to bed and Deer Creek inflow was 40 cfs. Woke up and it was 33o cfs, but droppping fast. I knew it would be murky, if not plain muddy, so I used it as an opportunity for another hour of sleep before hitting the road. I figured that would give 3 hours for the dirty water to move downstream.
I got up and start fishing at 10 am, the water was still dirtier than I had hoped. Visibility was about 12", however, third cast a fish landed. Go big and go bright in the dirty water pays off. I did get a look at a Bullethead Skwala dry from a reasonably sized fish, but no take. As expected, the water cleared up some during the day, not as much as I had hoped for however. Landed some of these new small ( 8" - 10") Yuba fish. I did relieve the river of a 15" Squawfish that I caught. First one I have ever seen in the Yuba. The buzzards are enjoying him today. He was sitting in a spot where I caught a couple of smaller trout, probably looking for these guys as some lunch.
There was a decent mayfly hatch that began at 12:30, but no risers. I think the water was still a tad too tainted. As I turned over rocks, I saw a number of Skwala nymphs crawling around, and an enormous amount of mayfly nymphs under the rcoks. What a great sight to see, and so different from ony a few months ago. The Yuba will need some time to recover, but this was encouraging.
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