Feather River, Sacramento River, Yuba River

Ends of February

by Matt
Yuba River Hen

Rain has arrived and we got quite a bit of it. With that a lot of good fishing happened and I was lucky enough to get a few here and there. The water is starting to clear now and later this week there will be more rain to change the color and rise our rivers to make it fishing excellent again. Let it rain, let it rain. Lets go Sac River, Feather River, and Yuba River!

Sacramento River
The Washout in Chico was fishing pretty well with
the release of the planter run. I probably missed it about a week or two
but they were there for the amount of time I fished. They weren’t big but they were rising like crazy and would eat any dry I threw at
them. It was nice to get some action on a dry fly this early in the
season. This part of the river was blown out by the rain but it was fun
while it lasted.

Sac River Trout

Feather River
I have never fished the Feather above the HWY 70 bridge. I now realize how great a fishery this area is for steelhead since it is literally next to the hatchery. The water was dirty and the sky was overcasted making it the perfect time to fish for steelhead. I hooked a few and lost them but I landed one for each day that I went there. These fish are tricky to get to bite but once you hook one they put up a great fight. These fish were taking eggs and small fry patterns. The fishing became difficult as the the water is now clear making the fish a lot more wary of what is going on around them. Although not crowded while I was there, there is a limited space in this section. I guess I am just use to fishing with less people. Hopefully the water dirties up within the next rain to make the fish aggressive again.

Post Spawned Steelhead

Yuba River
I went to the Yuba after the rains thinking it wouldn’t but as blown out as I thought it was going to be. The water was very muddy and the clarity was less than 1ft but I manage to hook a nice fish in the spot that I knew they would be holding. The skwalas were around making it pretty easy to match what they would be eating but the Yuba River is always unforgiving especially when the clarity is so bad.

Collins Lake, North Fork Feather River, Yuba River

Waiting For Rain

by Matt
Big Yuba Steelhead

We need rain. Despite the lack of any falling water, I’ve been able to somewhat catch fish here and there. It’s been pretty slow but now that its been warming up (a lot near 70s for the past few weeks) spring is fast fowarding. Although I believe there won’t be any rain soon I’m hoping the spring turnover will happen quicker this year.

North Fork Feather River
The North Fork flows have been pretty low around 250 CFS. I caught my first fish of the year there and tried again the following weekend with no success. We will have to wait to see how this is going to affect the future hatches that are going to be coming soon.

Yuba River
The Yuba River is also low around 750 CFS and I read that Englebright dam is the only dam that has a significant amount of water in comparison to the other reservoirs around here. I have been fishing the same spot and constantly hook up at least once of twice in the day which is better than I usually do on this river. There seems to be a lot of fishermen focusing above the bridge which is ideal in theory, however due to the low flows it can be hard to find a decent spot and a fish that is willing to take.
We’ve been getting bright sunny days for the past couple of weeks so its best to fish early in the morning or later in the afternoon. There were a few skwalas laying eggs in the afternoon and the dries were working. Not a lot of people on the river yet, once the skwalas are in prime there will be fishermen everywhere.

Yuba River Skwala Dry Eater

Collins Lake
Manda and I went camping at Collins Lake and I was hoping to hook up with some fish for dinner for the weekend. Despite my best efforts I went home empty handed and was saved my the extra food my girlfriend packed. I didn’t see anyone catch anything the whole time there except a one person who had a springer with a trout on it. There were quiet a few fishermen on the banks and boats everywhere. One of the few reasons I’m not too big on stillwater fishing.

The website posts a fishing report of people hitting the limits there. Collin’s Lake wasn’t always known as a great fishery but really? Ramble ramble ramble.

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Keep Calm and Fly Fish™