After working far too much the last few weeks and having a couple of back to back 6 day work weeks, I got to enjoy my final Yuba Raffle weekend at the UC Property this weekend.
JL came up on Saturday and I had another friend join me on Sunday. We knew the flows would be a little high, but did not have any idea that they would go from 3500 CFS to 6800 CFs on Saturday. It was like a flood in the canyon. There was an enormous amount of water moving down the river, as well as all the flotsam that came with these flows. Islands were non existant as they were all underwater.  The water was about 4 feet higher than the previous weekend when flows were 2600 CFS.
We had to keep our eyes peeled as we ran into 3 rattlesnakes on Saturday. The first one struck at me, but missed as I was hauling ass out of his way. He was a big 5 footer with bunch of buttons on his rattle. I was lucky to see him just before he struck, otherwise it would have been a very short day.Â
Fishing was slow both days as you could imagine. I hope to never fish the Yuba at 6000-6800 CFS again. We got a couple of fish each day with a couple of more hookups.   My first fish on Sunday though was a nice fat 19" rainbow. At least the weather was perfect.
Jerry has a picture of the last rattler we came across while wal;king back to the UC property. Hopefully he'll throw it on a post for a good laugh. Hopefully this runoff will be over soon. I saw where the NF Yuba was running at 3600 CFS, I can only imagine what that looks like.
Nice report and well done on getting a few fish in those high flow conditions. Being bitten by snake is my biggest worry when fishing in remote areas. I always try to be super vigilant and make my foot steps to be as pronounced as possible so that the vibrations will hopefully make the snake get out of the way even before I see them. The other thing I do is try to never put my hands on the ground in very snaky looking terrain as your hands, arms and face are the most susceptible to being struck by a rattler. My next door neighbor in Iowa Hill killed (they kill anything that moves up there) three rattlers while cutting his lawn on last weekend. So, while cutting mine this weekend I wore 3/4 length think rubber wading boots just to be on the safe side.
Regards,
Denis
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Fly fishing is so enjoyable, it should be done in bed.
I was wondering how you went this weekend I was up there Thursday and Friday with RGLoft. Flows were 3200 and then 4000 which was pretty brutal can't imagine what it is like over 6000!!! I suppose I will find out next weekend with PCT!! Rich did however get his largest Yuba fish to date .... a bueaty pushing near the 20 inch mark. For me I couldn't mange anything anywhere... except a couple out of a little honey hole that Bob took me too the weekend before!!
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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.
I suppose I will find out next weekend with PCT!! Rich did however get his largest Yuba fish to date .... a bueaty pushing near the 20 inch mark. For me I couldn't mange anything anywhere
... except a couple out of a little honey hole that Bob took me too the weekend before!!
