Fished the Yuba for the first time ever yesterday. One word to describe it...unprepared! Got out there at 7:00 around the Hallwood area. Location was the first mistake. Big, fast, open water not too appealing. Fished there till around noon and didn't see a soul around...should have gotten that hint earlier. Didn't hook into any trout there, however, my buddy hooked into a HUGE fish that I had never seen before. Looked like a stripped bass, but with a sucker for a mouth. Someone mentioned a "Sacramento Squall"? I'll post the pic later.
Drove around a lot after lunch and finally found some much more appealing water and some fisherman...woo hoo! Unfortunately, I don't know the name of the area, but it was just a couple miles down from the bridge. Finished out the day here with not too much luck. My buddy hooked a pretty hard fighting 13" and we had a few other takes. There was a pretty big Skwala hatch while we were there...I couldn't knock them off of me fast enough. They were about an inch long, wings folded back, and a pretty bright yellow belly. The fish were going crazy over them, but of course I was not prepared for this and had nothing that represented a good imitation. Just another learning experience for a beginning fly fisherman.
The day seemed to be on the slow side for just about everyone else. A DFG guy in a canoe was taking a fish survey and stopped us on our way out. He said that most people had reported a fish here and there. He did tell us that a guy in a drift boat had just caught a 28.5" beast though. And of course he said that just about everyone was getting them on the surface with those Skwalas. Oh, well...get them next time.
The yuba is a tough river to figure out...It is loaded with fish.Others will say it is not, but it is loaded..The effort it takes to learn the yuba is worth it.The fish put up a great fight for there size....If you want to get the cliff notes version of the yuba hire a guide...One day on the water with a good guide and you will learn more than enough to stick fish on your own the next time out... putah is small and you can figure it out pretty fast..yuba is bigger and fishes a lot different.Any time you fish with a guide ask them a lot of questions..about the water , seasons,bugs ,access areas,learn as much about the river as you can... check this guide out.he hits the yuba a lot www.rjsflytrips.com anybody can PM me if you want more info..
I agree with MX19, the Yuba can be very confusing sometimes. The Skwala hatch is usually the start of some very good dry fly fishing. There is a good spring caddis hatch on the river as well. Your report on this sounds great! I've fished this river quite a bit and feel like I know it pretty well, but had a skunko (first in two years there) two weeks ago. We tried everything too!
The Yuba fish are quality fish. Personally, they measure up with fish anywhere as far as fighting ability. These guys are combat ready.
Last spring we fished all day long on a drift trip. We got a couple of decent fish each between all 3 of us. We took out at Sycamore Ranch, and worked some areas there nymphing for about 45 minutes. We worked this area over, and nothing at all. We stayed another half hour to catch the evening hatch and . . . BOOM! The area we were nymphing and got zippo just came alive for 20 minutes, with large fish rising all over the place. I was throwing a size 12 Stimulator and got 3 nice 17"-18" rainbows during this time. It was amazing that there were so many fish inhabiting this area . . I mean it was just crazy how it changed so quickly. The floods of 3 winters ago really changed the Yuba. It seems like it's really coming back into shape now. Part of the lure of the Yuba is learning the river. It's got a lot of different water to it that fishes differently. Keep at it, we all learn something new everytime we hit the river.
well me and the boys might be hittin the yuba on friday as well. so any pointer you can give me would be great, just shoot me a pm.
last time me cappy and lilwhipper went we all hooked up, lilwhipper hooked a few, and a large beat up salmon, i hooked a screamer, and cappy hooked and landed one.
i tell you want inch for inch these fish will throw you around hands down, if you go there underguned, you might as well call it a day.
so ya if you got some pointers shoot me a pm,
thanks brian
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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.
It is a tough river to figure out, I have a love hate relationship with the lower yuba, I love to fish it but it kicks my butt. But I dont give up easily. The yuba trout are defenitly "combat ready" I love that term. Hopefully me and the boys have some luck friday. We'll be heading upriver from the hwy. 20 bridge. MX19, Come on man give us somethin good, I know your a guru on the yuba
Thanks for all the advice. ONEWEIGHT, I feel like my day was just the same as yours except I wasn't catching the fish. Once the Skwala hatch started it was amazing how active the fish were and how many of them there were. I never would have thought there were so many fish. Oh well, I'm heading back in a week or two and I will be better prepared w/a little more knowledge. Thanks guys.
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.
I'm not positive but that looks like a lovely Squaw fish, catch a lot of those on the lower sac, upper sac below sims and the pit. Also known as a pikeminnow. Last summer I was fishing below sims on the upper sac and I hooked a 10' rainbow. I was bringing the fish in and it was racing all over this deep pool, I was standing on a ledge. I'm about to bend down and release the fish when out of the depths this brownish flash with a split tail like the one on your fish above attacks my "bait "on the end of my line. All the sudden I have 30" monster on the end of my line. It scared the crap outa me. It stays on my line for a minute or two and then breaks off. I talked to Bob at Ted Fay Fly shop and he says it probably was a giant Sqauw fish. He said that the last big floods up there washed all the squaw fish down below sims.
They are also known to hang out at the Red Bluff diversion dam and devour any smolts salmon/steelhead and rainbows that become disoriented trying to head down stream. I've even caught some on dries before. The biggest Ive caught was about 28". It's really disappointing when you feel a big heavy hit on your fly only to find out it is a squawfish. They fight hard for about 5 seconds and then just drag in. If you've fished Montana/wyoming/Idaho think the dreaded Whitefish.
Thats a northern squawfish, also known as a sacramento pike. They are native to this area and love to eat small salmon and trout. I say all that are caught should be killed, The trout and salmon will thank you.
you can always do what i did when i was on the yuba for the first time, hook, fight, land, unhook, and toss, ONE THE GRAVEL
__________________
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.
If you dont want other people to see you tossing fish on to the bank for misundersanding reasons then sqeeze them really really hard and let them go..they will not live after that...
Squawfish are a native part of the central valley ecosystems...unlike stripers, large/small mouth bass and numerous other piscivores. Yes these fish consume small trout and salmon, but they are not the same species that occur in the Columbia river, which have a bounty on there head. The have coexisted with salmon and trout for a very long time. I would rather eradicate all the striped bass which have a massive predation rate on smolts... Just because squawfish are not a values gamefish doesn't make them inferior.
I vote for a heavy blow to the head and instant kill. Get a rock slightly bigger than your fish and make one swift smash. Done deal. Dump carcass back into water.
* I have never done this, but I feel its the best way to kill any fish. *
Wow...this has definitely changed. Some of you were up pretty late with this one. I would typically turn and shot put the fish up onto the bank. But 101fish brings up a good point. I think I would still kill the fish, but I would do as dtp916 says a make it swift instead of making the fish suffer.
