The lure of the Yuba pulled me in again. I ran up this morning for a quick day trip. Ran into Cody at the parking area when I got there. It looked like he was in a Conestoga Wagon, there were 5 fly fishers packed into a van for their day trip. I hope no one had refried beans for the trip home.
Th Skwala hatch has started, not in a big way though. The fish are not keyed in on them yet. I also saw Golden Stones, PMD's and Mayflies hatching during the afternoon, as well as some tiny midges. I saw tons of caddis pupa's in their sand shucks on the rocks in the river. They'll be ready to go in another 4-6 weeks I'd guess.
The Yuba Zoo is officially open. On my way back down the river, working towards the parking area at the HWY 20 bridge, I counted 17 fly fishers working the river!!! The Skwala time of year sure brings the crowds. When I got back to the parking area at the end of the day, it looked like Woodstock. I thought I might wait around to see if Jimi Hendrix would play the Star Spangled Banner on his guitar to end the day ( just like at Woodstock for you pre-Woodstock younger guys!).
Visibility in the water was only about 1 1/2' - 2', the water is still very murky. The poor fish must have felt like George Foreman . . . what, with all of these fly fishers throwing size 8-10-12 beadhead stonefly nymphs, they must have been bouncing them off of the Rainbow's heads all day long in this murky water and knocked them silly. I'll bet those rains ran down the exposed clay banks at Englebright and Bullards Bar reservoirs, and the water just got real muddy.
Fishing was pretty slow all day, I'd guess mainly due to the water clarity.  I did land a couple of nice fish higher up in the river, as well as a smaller one, during the day. I felt pretty good about that given conditions. There were a few fish rising, but I couldn't tell what for. It certainly wasn't any one of he 10 dries I threw at them.Â
Here's a couple of pics of one of the trout and the cars piled up at the parking area. I couldn't resist.
Good job there Bob!! My guess is that 90% of the people fishing the Yuba get skunked!! Back in the good old days you could just throw stimis and x caddis and land 22 inch trout. Good thing there are better rivers!!
The read bearded bregade was up there Friday and we only saw 2 other guys on the water, right at the end on our way back down....that may have been more to the fact that the water looked like chocolate milk. Anyway had an awesome day out none the less. No fish for me though...... unfortunately i think it was more to do with me than the water as the other red beard did OK.
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"Three-fourths of the Earth's surface is water, and one-fourth is land. It is quite clear that the good Lord intended us to spend triple the amount of time fishing as taking care of the lawn." - Anon.
the weather was great when me and alastair went. couldnt ask for any better weather, the clouds keep the sun off, but still warm enough to where we both took layers of quickly. the chocolate milk did hinder our spirits when we first got there. but within 5 casts i hooked into a nice 14"er on a skwala, so figured it would be a great day. well it was as far as weather and just being on the water, but the fishing was pretty slow. i only hooked a good chucky fish up river easy 18"s but came off withing a few seconds. a few of my go to chutes changed with the recent high water flows, which sucked but i would like to see how they look once the water clarity gets back to normal. fyi the murky water is not from deer creek, its coming out of englebright. i would say give it atleast a week or maybe 2 until the viz gets better. but even though viz is crap the fish are still there. just need to use brighter flys.
who knows i might just have to get back our there this week. but my new journey will take alastair and i way up in the mountains tomorrow for some good o piggys in my fav mountain river in the beautiful white stuff. hey it might even snow when we are there.
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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.
