Quote Originally Posted by Jeff F View Post
The NF Yuba is easy to get to. Tons of smaller rainbows, but roadside and generally easy wading.

MF Yuba can be accessed by a couple steep dirt roads. This is truly a wild canyon. This fishing is good for rainbows from 6-16". But most are 10" or so.

SF Yuba.....forget it. Too warm to support trout in the Auburn area. And gets too low up Hwy 80.

The MF American has very little access. Where you can access is not very good fishing as those spots get lots of pressure and bait is allowed in season. However, there are a couple hike-to spots that are excellent, if you're willing to drop 1300 feet into the canyon in a mile hike.

The NF American has lots of trails, but again, they are very steep. Lots of fish though. Mostly smallish rainbows (6-12") but you can run into a few big ones. The lower reaches (Yankee Jims/Iowa Hill are now mostly smallmouth bass fisheries. So you'd have hit higher elevation trailheads for trout.

SF American........the daily whitewater flows make this river not good for fishing. Although it does get planted, and there are some decent out of the way spots, but not the number of fish you'd hope for.

Bear River......not worth the effort.

Deer Creek runs right through Nevada City and Grass Valley. There are surprisingly quite a few fish in there. Bows and browns from 6-12". You can start at a road crossing and just wade up or downstream for quite a ways to avoid private property.

If you have a float tube, there are tons of lakes within 1-2hrs.

Yes, Redding is a much better base for fishing. It gets hot, but so does Auburn. Auburn will see almost as many 100-deg days as Redding.

~Jeff
Jeff, Thanks for your reply and all of this info.

Steep hikes aren't in the cards for us right now.

I thought Deer Creek was out hwy 32 outside of Chico?