Well I hit the Yuba with Captain and Emerger on Sunday and we had a characteristically tough but fun time.  Since it is already out there on the board I'll spoil the shocking ending, some Darwin nominee tried to drive his truck across the river down by the 20 bridge and got pinned against a piling in about 5 feet of rushing water!  It looked very spooky while we were walking out in the darkness.  Other than that there were many people enjoying themselves at the Yuba this beautiful Sunday.  We ran into a few guys I fished with last week who managed 3 or 4 good fish, and there were several other fishermen out pounding the banks.  The day started off pretty slow.  No bugs showed in the AM or early afternoon so we stuck to Nymphing.  I had just tied on a San Juan worm when Emerger yelled that he spotted a pod of fish, I went up to his vantage point and sure enough right off the bank in a shallow depression there were several large fish feeding actively.  We went down and first cast my indicator went down.  I set the hook into a rainbow torpedo that jumped several times and then took off making my new Abel reel scream delightfully loud.  After a hell of a fight Emerger netted the fish, about a 17" bow with a buttload of energy!  Shortly after I missed a nice one and landed another smallish fish in the same area.  Emerger also hooked a nice one that shook him off.  We started to see some PMD's and March Browns coming off and fish began rising sporadically.  We also found a HUGE golden stone and I got some good pics of it.  After that we hiked up to see how Captain was doing.  He had a really hard take swinging his nymphs in the confluence of two channels under a big riffle, but set the hook too quickly and missed the fish.  Emerger and I moved again down to the opposite side of the bank we were fishing before where we had seen a few risers.  Noticing that there were some skwalas showing on the water I tied on a new fly of my own design to try out.  I found a line of rising fish and drifted over the first one.  On my second drift it was like a mine exploded underneath my fly.  I didn't even have time for a hookset before my line went flying through my fingers, out of my guides, and into the water!  If you have ever owned an Abel you might appreciate how exceptionally loud these reels are when you have a fish on, and this one was making my reel sing a song that echoed through the little canyon we were in.  Once again Emerger came to the commotion and saved the day by netting the fish.  A big fat 20" hog that didn't even fit in his net!  After that he tried to get a take on a skwala but the fish were put down or had switched over to mayflies or something.  After a while with no takes we walked back up to where Captain hooked his fish and I drifted my bug over the same lie.  After a few casts a dark shadow darted out beneath my fly and took it.  After a short battle I had another bow to hand that went about 17".  Next cast in the same spot a really nice fish came up and sipped my fly.  All I saw was his head and I swear he looked me in the eye, decided he knew better, and spit it back out, dissapearing as fast as he came.  We decided to call it a day and fished our way back.  On the way Emerger hooked another fish that jumped three times and then spit his hook.  What a bummer!  Ended the day 4 for 6, exhausted but happy!  Thanks Cliff and Sean for inviting me to fish with you guys and for the help with the net/pics!  If anyone is going up there planning on fishing the Skwala hatch know that it is winding down and if they appear it will only be for a short while.  The fish were actively rising to them only for about 1/2 hour out of the day, but they still took an imitation casted out over likely water with no rises.  Don't get discouraged if you go up early and see no bugs/risers.  The activity is centered mostly around the warmest part of the day (3-5pm) so just stick it out and you should get into something.  That said it looks like March browns are starting to show and Goldens are on the way.  The Yuba is coming into shape boys, hold onto your hats!
chuck