Hit the Lower Yuba yesterday. Fished 2 sections between the HWY 20 bridge and Sycamore. It's been 2 years since I've been skunked on this water, but yesterday was the day. Two of us fishing hard all day, and nothing. We threw a wide variety of bugs, Skwalas ( green and brown, size 4-8-10), golden stones, green rockworms, BH princes, glo bugs, aelvins, hotwire princes, baetis nymphs, Dark Lords, Bird's Nest, etc. Even swung and stripped black wooly buggers. Changed weights, depths, indicators etc. Man, we tried hard!
Around 1 PM there were a few working fish rising. Looked like they were taking something in the film. Started throwing some dries and emergers, but no luck. A couple of guys on a pontoon boat had landed some fish on dark tan skwalas. Overall, talking with some drift boats, sounded like a slow day on the river. Water was a little high, but not bad. Clarity was about 3-4 feet and clearing up as the day went along. It was a beautiful day on the river, about 65 degrees. The river is really coming into shape again.
There were some sporadic hatches of stoneflies, PMD's and Baetis. Nothing big. After two years of pretty good days on the Lower Yuba, I am humbled. It makes the 2 1/2 hour drive a bit longer. Thankfully, stopping at The Graduate in Davis and having a couple of pints of Murphy's (which is very hard to find in the US) made it all a little better. I wish I had some pictures to show!!
Let us know how you did . . . I'll be interested to see what worked. We waded at the turn above that big concete structure on the left. Hit the whole area from the flats to that last spillout at the structure. Then we went down to the next island just below and worked the heck out of both sides of the island. There were actually 2 salmon still spawning in the main channel.
let me know next time you go, if its during the week you can count me in, thats if there is room
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Fishing isnt about catching fish, its not about who caught the most, or who caught the biggest, its about the experience that you have on the water, and the life long bonds you make with others on the journey to becoming a better person inside.
absolutely, it sounds like you've been having too much fun nailing the steelies lately though! We' ll be drifting the American this Friday, but the boat's full. If you're on the river and we see you, we'll have to stop and say high, and possibly down a cold one while we do that.
Oneweight can you post a picture of one of those skwala stones? I want to tie some and I have been trying to find them online and every one I look at looks different. I want these just for the Yuba. Or if anybody can post a picture that would be great.
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God does not subtract from your life the hours you spend fishing. Â Â Herbert Hoover.
Heres the skwala i have used on the lower yuba, I haven't had good success there but its a fun river to fish. I dont tie but i think this is a nice looking example of one.
I fished the yuba today..started above the 20 bridge and floated down to the private access...had 10 fish fish total ..landed 9 out of the ten...most fish took a red san juan worm. my friends targetted a few fish with drys and got them to eat but kept missing the hook sets...water still has a bit of color but fishable....only saw one other guy hooked up on a fish ..there were a lot of boats and riffle markers for a monday...
MX . . .you dog! You took me to the cleaners!!!!! Nice going. I was thinking about trying a worm, but never got to it. Probably wouldn't have had anything anyways. Nice going, sounds like you guys had a good day.
The picture that Captain posted of the skwala is a good picture. I threw green (looks like what is pictured) and a dark tan one also. Try some skwala dries also.
A Lower Yuba drift is about 4 miles. Depending on how much you get out of the boat and wade, it's about a 5 hour drift. If you shot down the river without stopping or going back over any water, you could probably push it in 2 1/2-3 hours.
I would guess that with this weather, there may be some hatches coming off. I turned a lot of rocks, and saw very, very little bug life on the rocks. There were a ton of Golden Stones in the fall, but not much yet.
I was sinking some big stones in hopes of a hot wild steelhead...I guess you could say I got skunked on the steelhead...If I had more time to spend I would have hammered down on a few of the runs that hold steelies...We were trying to cover a lot of water in a few hours...Iam thinking about going back and finding one of those big boys...If the water clears up a little more but still holds some color it could get really good...next time I go mabe we can meet up ...mabe monday...Dont hold me to it yet...Trinity river is asking me to take friday off work...
I'd love to hook up with you on the Yuba in the future. Drifting the American this Friday, and then skiing for 3 days, so I'd have to do it in the future, but I'd love to. That Skwala hatch should be about a month-6 weeks away at the absolute latest I guess? I can get away some Fridays and of course there's weekends down the road.
Hey Captian thanks for the pic. I am going to try tying up a few. I am thinking sizes 8-10-12. Sound right. I guess I should get some golden stones going also. Thanks guys.
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God does not subtract from your life the hours you spend fishing. Â Â Herbert Hoover.
I'm heading out to the Yuba this weekend. Have never fly fished it, so I was hoping to get some helpful info. Any suggestions anyone on flies and locations? Thanks.
