The Maiden Voyage!

[MSP]

Well Adam and I floated the Yuba today and I would have to say it was quite successful, we both survived, nobody fell in, the truck was fine when we returned, and we managed a few fish! First time for me floating from the bridge to Sycamore so don't ask me about changes to the river. Got fish on nymphs, (stones, and Poopah's) and buggers. Here are a few pics from my side of the journey. Great time Adam, thanks!

Adam's first fish 5 minutes into the drift!



Adam washing down some trail dust in the middle of the river.



Adam drifting a Bugger through a beautiful run!



The results of Adam's persistance!

[SteelieD]

Nice! For all the talk of a changed Yuba, you guy's seem don't seem to have missed a beat!

[DonCooksey]

Nice report and nice fish! Hope to get back up there before too long. Looks like the flows went up during the day by almost 50%; were you guys affected by that?

[MSP]

Hi Don, we might have been affected but I wasn't aware of it. I don't think I could have told you if it went up 10 times higher. Well maybe 10 times!

[Adam Grace]

Today was fun.

The water is high but fishable, better to fish from a boat. There are definately changes in the river. The banks near the bridge are slighty wider and the drop offs are steeper. There are tons off steep drop offs throughout the river now, more than before. Many of the willows are horizontal and bare if they are still rooted into the ground.

The water is fast and harder to fish but there are select sections of water which look great. Mike and I enjoyed seeing all of the newly formed stretches of river.

The kayaking was exciting, especially when I almost tipped us over

Here are some of the pictures from today.


Mike'S kayak on a sand bar.


Mike fighting a trout.


Mike enjoying a dehydrating beverage after a nice day on the water.

Thanks again for the trip Mike.

[Jasonh]

Lools like you guys had a good time. Were the fish fairly aggressive and did you see any bug activity or bugs under rocks? Were are all the fish pictures, i know you guys did better than two fish. That or you were too busy dehydrating yourselves!

Jason Hartwick

[Adam Grace]

Jason,

The fish did not seam to be very "aggressive." I thought that the trout would be all over any type of flies but they seamed to but a little tight lipped.

We saw some PMD's flying around and floating down the river. At one time the swallows came out in good numbers to feed on the mayflies. We never saw a ton of PMD's but they were out. I picked up a lot of rocks within a foot of water and hardly saw any insects. The first rock that Mike turned over had two golden stones underneath. There are still bugs, but I think that the insects which were not flushed downstream need a little time to spread throughout the bottom of the river.

I landed three fish, not very great. Mike landed about three as well, maybe more. I never got a picture of Mike with a fish, but he told me that he landed one about 15" long. My best, the streamer fish was 16", we taped it.

Here are some more pictures from the trip.



check out the willows, they were beat down by the high flows.



Mike was high sticking and hooked into a trout on the swing using a tan Fox's Poopah. Check out the bushes at his feet.


The sun came out later on in the day.

We had fun, we both can't wait to see what the river will look like when it calms down.

[Jasonh]

Nice pics Adam. Looks like the water is moving pretty fast and it must have kept wading to the edges. Glad to see you guys got out.

Jason Hartwick

[Jgoding]

It seems a lot of people are commenting on the low number of insects. I would think this is perfectly normal for this type of situation when that much water moved through that area. It is going to to either flush, cover up, or kill most of the insects that were there before the floods but if we are fortunate the river should recover quickly as long as the dynamics of the river substrate haven't changed too much.

Jeff

[SullyTM]

Hey MSP...what'd you catch that "Brown Beauty" on? :P Looks like you and Adam did some wet wading also...Is that an inflatable 2-person kayak? Is that a typical summertime depth for the Yuba? OK, so I ask to many questions I might need to hit it this summer...Keep smilin' Adam! SullyTM