It’s been awhile since I’ve been able to get out but now that the holidays are over I can finally get back on the water. Winter can be a bit of a limiting time of year for anglers due to the closed season but the options that remain open are some of the best. Although there are still a few places that I have left to make my rounds to this winter I’ve been able to find some time and fish the Yuba River.

I’ve been limited to only being able to fish weekends and with several consecutive weekend storms happening throughout this fall and winter I’ve been much more productive at home than on the water. I eventually got cabin fever and tried fishing during a rainstorm. I kept a close eye on the forecast during this supposedly rainy and windy stormfront and I decided to give the Yuba River a try after seeing how calm and not so rainy it was outside. Long story short the rain and wind eventually caught up with me on the river and I went home after about two hours with no bites.

I’ve learned through the years that the following day post-storm tends to be the worst time to fish and it usually takes a day or two of stable weather for the fish to acclimate. After skipping a day I went back to Yuba on Christmas Eve and found it a somewhat clear steelhead green and flowing at 1360CFS. I was expecting to find fish in the seams but only found them in the calm waist-deep runs. I sampled one of the three trout I landed and found that it was feeding heavily on BWOs. The dry fly fishing is usually phenomenal this time of year and I was hoping for a dry fly hatch but nothing popped that day despite what I would consider ideal hatch weather.

Hopefully the Yuba River’s hatches start soon so that I can start doing some dry fly head hunting. I’m going to give it another week or two before checking in again.

I made my annual trip to Pyramid Lake and struck out with no fish to the net. It looked like everyone else got hit with the skunk too though which made me feel a little better.