Another Yuba Report

[jmircetich]

Was on the Yuba yesterday, large PMD hatch around 1pm and some BWO. Skwallas were around but few on the water.
Managed three and lost two on a 18 renegade

[CW]

Fished the lower Yuba (below Daguerre) on Sunday with our friend Dave W. from Truckee - we were hoping for steelies and started the day off swinging tips and got into a few, but the best part of the day was around noon when the BWOs started coming off, and the fish were crazy, eating every emerger within a radius of a couple of feet. They were rolling, swirling, chasing, and splashing. They were in these long (300 yards) slow, glassy runs, just going insane. Saw a pink, wispy mayfly around 2:30 and then around 3/3:30ish, saw the caddis starting to come off. Water is ultra low, so it required LONG leader (14, 15 feet to 5x).... and ultra slow wading .....

[Adam Grace]

I fished the Yuba with Gregg on Sunday from 12-dark. High noon brought out the mayflies. I am still not too sure which type of mayfly they are. They look like PMD's but the true "PMD" is a spring time mayfly. I guess that they could have been pale BWO's but most of the BWO's that I have seen are darker, thinner and smaller. What ever they are the trout were definitely eating them. Splashy rises here and there for about an hour. I managed to fool one larger fish near the bank but the hook pulled out before the fight even started. If I did not have my heart set on catching those fish on the top I would have swung a soft hackle pheasant tail #16. I think that a PMD cripple or a CDC floating nymph type of imitation might have worked if I brought any.

Around 4pm the skwalla stonflies came out and Gregg and I became very excited considering they were the focus of our trip.




Those sexy stoneflies make for a great winter trout fishing experience .

I had been presenting small BWO and PMD patterns with 6x tippet at the end of a 12' leader for a picky trout for about 30 minutes with no success. After casting and changing multiple flies for the picky trout I finally saw it gulp in one of those tasty skwalla stones. I was so thrilled to see that fish take the natural swkalla that did not want to waist time to change my leader. I tied my skwalla pattern onto the 6x knowing that I would have quite a battle on my hands if the fish grabbe my fly.




My third cast with a topsy turvy skwalla pattern (above) the finicky trout engulfed my fly at the end of Gregg's new Echo 7'6" 3wt rod and the fight was on! After a crazy fight I landed the fish with the help of Gregg's great netting skills

Here's a picture of the fish, not large but worth the effort especially after the bend it put into the great little 3wt.



Gregg also hooked into a strong Yuba trout using a skwalla pattern. Unfortunately after the trout smashed Greggs fly it bolted and popped him off

Overall the trip was tons of fun. I caught one fish, captured these fun pictures and Gregg got to see his first skwalla stonefly.

The water clarity is good and the bugs and fish are active.

I hope you all have fun out there soon. But leave some fish for the rest of us weekend warriors.

Sorry for the long post I love this sport too much to only write a little blurb.

[oonchie]

Is the stonefly hatch as predictable as the BWO hatch? Probably around 4PM?

[Jasonh]

Nice report Adam. Sounds like the dry fly fishing on the yuba is starting to pick up! Pictures from the camera are turning out great. I am having a lot of fun with mine especially with the macro setting. Keep posting those cool pics, we all enjoy them!

Jason