Played in a golf tourney Saturday morning, grabbed some lunch and decided to make a run to the Yuba to get in some dry fly fishing Sat. Night and Sunday.
Figured with all the other rivers opening, why the hell would anyone hit the ugly old Yuba. Well, Saturday afternoon/evening was crowded as all get out until about 7:00 when people started to bail. Of course, that's when it started to get really really good.
Only problem was, I was fishing above the bridge and there were so many insects on the water, and these fish have taken such a pounding lately (and I'm sure my dry fly technique was rusty too) that I only got four or five grabs with 3 hookups and none to hand. Have to say though, casting to 20+inch trout who are avidly finning, rising, splashing, and sipping in 2-3 feet of water is exciting stuff.
I also don't think I had the right patterns. It's been a while since I updated my dry fly selection and I just didn't seem to have the size, color or pattern they were looking for.
Saving graces were that no one else was killing them either where I was, so it wasn't all my flies and technique.
Saturday night was one of those truly epic dry fly nights.. about 75 degrees, gorgeous sunset, slanting rays of sun illuminating the entire water column, exposing every move each fish made... really inspiring.
Grabbed a dingy hotel room in Yuba City and got up WAY TO EARLY Sunday to be the first one out. I was the first one out until 9:30 AM. Couldn't believe I had the entire section above the bridge to my self for 3 and a half hours.
Got a little bit crowded later in the day, but I had crossed and was the only person on the far side of the stream until I saw two other dudes around 5:00. By that time, after 11 hours, I was pretty much done. One 22 inch chromer to hand (they say they're not steelhead - but damn it if it wasn't the hardest fighting rainbow I've caught in recent memory) - 9 or 10 grabs and/or strikes. Sporadic and opportunistic rises all day to pmds, caddis, little yellow sallies, some small bwo's (I think), and lots of other bugs. At least 4 different kinds of caddis flies. I can't get over how big the fish are on the Yuba - consistently huge strong trout. Anyway, I fished till 6:00 and was simply too tuckered out to stick around for another epic night.
While I didn't get huge numbers, I'm looking forward to refreshing my fly selection and hitting it again soon.
I made it out Saturday from 9 to 4...wish I would have stayed later. Hooked five but didn't get any to hand, and had a few other takes. I would agree with you and swear that some of those fish are steelheads. Three of the fish I hooked were bright chromies and all got up and out of the water numerous times before shaking me.
We (three of us) made a Yuba run on Friday, and a week before as well. Identical situation as yours. It's not your rusty technique JL. I'm with you that the fish have been pounded and have wisened up. In the fall and winter, it was great fishing, still is, just the catch rate is way down. I spoke with a lot of guys on the river and all had the same story, either one fish or a skunk.
It is exciting to be fishing to large rising fish! I was lucky to have a perfect imitation for the caddis that are now hatching- green body w/ eliptical wings. I made a lot of nice drifts over rising fish with this fly and had one grab and one hookup. These fish were going after stoneflies, PMD's and March Brown's 6 weeks ago, and just seem much smarter these days. I must have changed rigs 25 times each day I fished. I tried nymphing, emergers and dries. My buddy got a nice fish on a Golden Stone nymph. These results are not just isolated to us, it's that way all over the river .
Flows are heading up for agriculture season, they're over 1600 CFS now, so wading will get tougher. The Yuba is definitely back and it's great to see!
Well, I made it to the Yuba for the first 2 times last Saturday and the Sunday before, both times from about 10am until it's too dark to see a big dry on the water.
I don't know how it looked like a couple months ago, but I tought the first Sunday was crazy. Big fish raising agressively, seemingly everywhere, all day long. And the last hour was awesome, bugs everywhere, fish raising sometimes every few seconds... But you had to be patient, they're sophisticated fish... I fished dries all day, I had several refusals where I could see the fish raise to my fly and not take it; got 3 firm grabs, first 2 broke off on the strike, third one to hand after a great fight and a few jumps (actually I think it was the greatest fight I ever had ). First fish on a fly I tied, a Caddis I came up with. (And I tried $2 fly shop flies all day too). Other fishermen I talk to had similar results, few hookups, very few landed, if any.
This Saturday, also tought people would go elsewhere... wrong. Fish were raising sporadically almost all day too, but not nearly as many raisers as the week before... There was fewer bugs during the day and fewer consistent raisers. But the number of insects at dusk was just unbelievable, PMDs, different sizes caddis, yellow sallies, different sizes/colors spinners on the water and more, keep-your-mouth-shut-or-you-gonna-eat-some kind of bug cloud. Despite that, fewer raisers in the evening (but that was still great!). That day I spent a lot of time exploring, caught a sucker in slower water on a bugger in the middle of the afternoon and one nice healthy (and kind of chrome) rainbow on a caddis dry maybe around 6, second fish on a fly I tied. Again, others I talked to were having slow days too, best I heard was 2 landed around 5pm, and I saw another guy slide in just above me not long after I caught my fish and land 2 and lose another one relatively close to his feet while nymphing as I was moving downstream.
ONEWEIGHT- This is my first season fishing the Yuba...probably made it out about 6 times now. What happens to the flows during the summer? Do they stay up like you say and how does this affect the fishing and wading?
I would not say I'm a Yuba expert, some guys here can tell you more than me. The farmers in the area rely on the Yuba for crop watering. The rice farmers, etc. need a lot of water in the summer, and the flows are bumped up to 2000-3000 cfs during the summer months pretty regularly in order to accomodate their needs. Much the same as Putah. These are double and triple what they have been running the flows at the last 2-3 months. Some of the wading access dissappears, and it's definitely combat wading in the river . . . very difficult to cross. Drift boats don't get affected as much from what I understand.
That's right - 3000 CFS and TOUGH wading, if any. Some spots, but bank fishing becomes difficult. Fish still rise though, but they're eaiser accessed from a boat.
I have this little trick for dry fly fishing in heavily fished waters that sometimes works real well. Tie your mayflies with a spun deer hair body that is trimmed down to the size that it would be if you were tying it with dubbing. In every other way tie a normal dry fly, same tailing, same hackle, same wings etc. Make sure to cut down the deer hair real tight to the hook instead of letting it have a large full body like an Irresistable. The fly sits in the water different than one tied with dubbing (it also floats better which is why I originally tied them this way), and while it may not look more like a natural, it looks less like a standard dry fly while still getting pretty close to matching the naturals. Half of fishing is superstition and this may be the case with my trick, but I have had success on waters other people worked over with standard dubbed flies and spinners. Admitedly it's more work to tie your flies like this, but try a half dozen and you may be suprised. If there is interest I'll post a picture of one of my flies.
