Got out to the lower Yuba for the evening on Sunday and was sorely disappointed. Man, how that river has changed.  The floods of this last winter have completely tranformed the layout/flows of the river above the HWY 20 bridge.  While the floods of the year previous also transformed the river, this time, it was REALLY significant.

New channels were created, old ones removed, and perhaps most significantly, when I sampled the insect life with my kick net - there were almost NO insects.  A few mayflies and that's about it.  No stone flies and no caddis flies.  Sure enough, the only bugs I saw in the air and on the water were very tiny little yellow mayflies.  No caddis at all, and that was a mainstay of the Yuba in the past during the evening.

In any event, despite these negative signs, my first cast with an X caddis pattern into a back eddy got a nice trout to rise, but not take.  That encouraged me and ultimately led to my disappointment because for the next three hours the only fish that came up were in one current seam and they were all tiny.  Probably got three strikes and one fish to hand, and he was only about 8 inches.  Smallest fish I've ever caught there.

I think the Yuba's going to need a few more months of stable flows, and maybe even as long as a year or so to come back into shape.  The next decent fishing there will probably be the egg bite in the fall.

I hope I'm wrong.

The North Fork, on the other hand was amazing.  I spent all day Monday up there, and probably caught 70 fish.  With 90% on dries.  I spent the morning on the upper part of the NF above sierra city where the river is mostly cascading pools with lots of boulders and gin clear water.  Here I caught probably 80% of the day's fish. Nothing large, but so much fun.  The little guys in those pools will eat just about anything you throw.  The bigger fish in the deeper pools are more selective.  I tempted 5 or 6 fish in this section of the river that probably pushed 12 inches - but most fish I caught were in the 8 inch range.  Certainly a nice change of pace from the lack of life on the lower Yuba. But the evening on the lower section of the NF below Downieville is where I really had fun.  As soon as the sun was off the water, the pool I was stalking lit up.  Fish were rising everywhere and eager to take my yellow stimulator, caddis, PED, and whatever else I could think of throwing.  There weren't a ton of bugs in the air, but the fish didn't mind.  They were slurping, jumping, sipping, and slashing all over the pool. Most times I didn't know where to cast.

As dark descended, the big boys came out and I hooked two fish that went about 15 inches but LDR'd both.  As the last light faded I saw several much larger fish (probably 17 inches plus) surface, but by then I couldn't really see my flies anymore, and it was just by luck that I hooked another nice fish, who burned my reel with a big run, and then promptly came unbuttoned.

Needless to say, the NF Yuba was one of the best days I've had on a stream in recent memory. One word of advice though - if you go, hit the stream early and go have a long lunch - say about 6 hours (from 12 - 6).  Then fish in the evening. Luckily - Sierra City and Downieville have nice restaurants and bars.  You could also go higher on the river of hit a tributary during the middle of the day - but wear sunscreen.