I decided to make a quick run up to the Lower Yuba this morning, what the heck . . . only 5 hours of driving back and forth?
After arriving at the river, I begin to suit up. As I break out my vest, I notice this putrid odor. I go through my pockets, and pull out a bag from my rear vest pocket with this liquified, rotten banana in it. I had left it in there after our Truckee run the second weekend in September, having completely forgotten that it was in my vest pocket. I guess this was a good lesson in always going through things and making a thorough clean out after a trip.
Sadly, some of this black liquid came out of the bag and spilled on my vest. It had this horrible fermented stench to it, man it was awful. Realizing that it was time for drastic action, I made the ultimate sacrifice . . . I cracked one of my ice cold Coronas and poured it over this stinky black liquid that was on my vest in order to clean it. If nothing else, I'll enjoy the smell of Corona a hell of a lot more than that stinky rotten banana.
Onto the fishing - there's a decent run of salmon in the river. There was a nice mayfly hatch around 10:30 AM and a nice Caddis hatch around 4:30 PM. I hit two large redd areas hard with Glo Bugs, Golden Stones and Prince Nymphs, but nada for action. I must admit, I was a bit depressed . . . beautiful weather, lots of salmon in the water, great wading conditions, no fish landed and one Corona used as fabric cleaner.
Just for the heck of it, I through on one of those size 8 Stonefly dries that worked so well back in the spring. Within the first 6 casts, I land two decent fish!!! I get 3 or 4 more takes, but no fish on and it's time to leave. That fly did not nearly resemble anything in size, shape or form that was on the river today. I guess an attractor will just stir them up sometimes. Well, I guess it's time to empty out that vest and get it into the washing machine.
I guess now you have a reason to minimalize and get a chest pack. You won't have room for a banana.
It's good to know that you got some fish. Those Yuba fish can be pretty wiley. One of my buddies always says, "when in doubt on the Yuba, throw something big and nasty." It seems like you did that. My favorite big Yuba fly is a #6 black rubberlegs stonefly.
The yuba fish tend to travel or hold in pods...lots of fish in one riffle, then nothing for a mile. We snorkeled it and saw this and couple other people I know have seen the same thing. The river is a tough one to fish, especially if you can't cover a mile or two looking for them school.
oneweight that really really sucks, i was in the same boat but with a sandwitch. man it sucks. as far as fishing, thats what happened with jt, dtp916, and myself last week. tough fishing.
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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.
That's interesting to read, about how the fish on the Yuba tend to pod up. Certainly seems true in the water above the bridge I guess. I spoke with a couple of other guys on the river, and it was a bit slow all around. I did see a couple of rises later in the day, but not from any of the Yuba monsters.
On the brighter side of things, the vest is as good as new after a long washing. Man, that old banana was nasty.
Oneweight, have you heard the myth about bananas being bad luck for fishing? I have a friend who freaks out if anyone brings a banana on his boat, he makes them throw it overboard. We humor him now and leave the bananas at home even when we are on the river.
Back in the early 1800s, bananas were shipped from the Caribbean to the Eastern US. In order to keep the bananas from getting overly ripe, the ships (I believe clipper ships) would sail as fast as the winds could blow them. Sailors used to trail lines behind their ships. Since the ships were travelling too fast, the sailors never had hookups. The sailors blamed the absense of hookups because the ships had to travel at higher speeds to meet their deadlines. With that in mind, they cursed the bananas.
I had never heard about the myth. I just chalk it up as lesson #467 in my stupidity lessons which are self-taught in life. I must admit, it was pretty funny. I did shed a tear at the realization that I needed to lose a Corona for the betterment of my day though.
I was surprised at how many salmon were in the system, it was good to see. There were a few Golden Stones under the rocks, my guess is the big hatch is a month off.
ya same here with the salmon, there was a bunch in the system, i could just imagine how well that river would do with a hatchery on it. me and jt where talking about it. any reason why that river is the only river beside the smith that doesnt have a hatchery. and ofcourse the smith is the only river in CA that you can keep wild steelhead. i dont get that either.
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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.
Not all hatcheries are good...there is a long term reduction of population fitness seen in hatchery fish and this can lead to the degradation of a fishery. Hatcheries are mostly maintained to pump out fish for people to catch, but in the fish from hatcheries show a massive (75-90%) reduction in survival compared to wild fish. The fitness reduction is rapid and cumulative (one generation is worse than the previous). Moyle has some data on this and the AFS meeting in Davis had a great presentation on it last week. It is a fairly well documented phenomenon. Butte Creek also has no hatchery on it, and happens to be the largest spring run chinook lineage remaining in the CV. As for the Smith...it is also the longest undammed watershed left in CA. The fact that the upstream spawning hab has not been compromised allows it to maintain a healthy enough population of steelies to have limited harvest. A lot of anadromous fish hatcheries are built to mitigate the loss of hab due to dams.
see i did not know that thanks for sharing 101fish
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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.
I think those in charge are making the right decisions for the lower Y. This past weekend when i was fishing i saw some new signs along the river talking about new plans for the Yuba. Instead of putting in a hatchery, they are actually undertaking steps, similar to those on the AR, to build some new spawning habitat for salmon, which will ultimately benefit the steelhead. THis will include some moving of rock, adding gravel, deppening of some runs, and the addition of a few new channels. Some might not like the activity, but I am all for it.
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all of a man's addictions end and begin when he learns to fly fish
Oneweight - the bright sun kills the fishing behind the redds on the Yuba... the pockets aren't deep enough for the fish to shelter in during bright light.
Early mornings and later afternoons when the sun is off the water is when it turns on for me behind the salmon.
Awesome on the dry... not surprising though, I've seen a few Skwalas flying around and a few HUGE cicaidas (or grass hoppers). Biggest flying bugs I've seen since salmon flies.
I thought you were going to say you saw a dead salmon when talking about the stench. Those smell pretty god awful too.
You're right . . . man those pockets and buckets are only 1-2 feet deep. Thanks for the insight, I didn't even think of that, never put it together. It's so much different than the Lower Sac where those pockets are more like 3'-7' deep. No trout is going to hang in water that shallow on a bright day, even for a free meal. And yeah, that banana smelled worse than the rotting salmon hands down.
I saw a couple of huge bugs flying around, but they were a ways from me so I didn't get much of a look at them. From a distance, they looked like an October Caddis?
There are a few holes deep enough behind the salmon, but those holes are always good, even when there's no salmon.
I swear the bugs I saw were Skwalas - super early for them I think - but who knows. Also - has anyone else ever seen the giant, i mean giant, grasshopper/cicaida type bug (super light green) that was flying around the other day?
funny you mentioned that JL, i saw something flying around the other day that i have never seen before, it looked like a giant skwala, didnt look like a hopper to me. I only saw one all day, but the one i saw flew right at me and tried to land on me as i was trying to cross the river, i tried to get out of its way and ended up getting a little wet, what can I say, it was huge and it scared the s#$% out of me. Black loooking with a yellow/greenish belly, like a skwala, but about twice the size, it was massive.
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all of a man's addictions end and begin when he learns to fly fish
Usually see them in mass around the first week of February up there. As for the thin water, a broken top often does the same thing as depth though my best luck had always been in slight chop and 3' or so of water. The tailout leading into the first run coming out of the narrows is an exception.
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Winter eats heat the way darkness swallows light. The terrors of failed power and frozen stems are stymied with fire, smoke and white ash.
I was reading about skwalas recently, Apparently about a month before you actually start seeing them they make a massive migration from the depths toward the shores to hatch So I figure january might be a good time to start tossing those skwala nymphs. Last year was my first real experience on the yuba fishing this hatch and its freakin awesome ! There were plenty of em on the yuba into april last year.
, Thats pretty disgusting, I may have even had to sacrifice a beer for that one. Nice to hear theres salmon in the river.
