Yuba River

Road Blocked On The Yuba River

There was never a day where I thought I would see the road that follows the Yuba River below HWY 20 bridge to be gated. Hammonton-Smartsville road has been blocked off to the public due to illegal off-roading and other criminal activities. Here is a link of all the incidents that have occurred which prompted the county to gate the road. Although public access on foot is still allowed this is a sad year for the Yuba River.

The biggest pro to the road being gated is that there will be significantly less pressure on the river. Less pressure from the public is a catalyst to many different positives such as undisturbed habitat, less trash and dumping, and ideally better fishing.

The biggest con is that the only access is by foot, private access above the bridge for launching drift boats, and hand-carried boat. The best method to access the Yuba is by boat as the Yuba in my opinion is one of the worst rivers on foot due to the loose stones that are an absolute pain to walk on. Although the section most people fish between HWY 20 bridge and the takeout at Sycamore Ranch is only about four miles long many of the runs, pools, and holes are spread apart which can quickly wear you down as the Yuba is a cover water type of fishery. Unless you have the ability to put a boat into the river a lot of anglers are going to be second guessing whether or not hitting the Yuba will be worth the effort fishing from here on out.

The record high snow pack this spring rose the Yuba’s flows to a peak 30,000 CFS. Huge and consistent flows have an incredible influence on how the Yuba fishes the rest of the year. In my personal experience I have found that the river doesn’t fish well until the following year. I believe that years of established bug life are washed away during high flow events due to the river being made up of mostly loose stones. This results in skinner fish that are more difficult to find. The structure of the river also changes which can be both exciting and frustrating. Holes and hides that have been productive for years get flatten out and flats that have never held fish turn into new hot spots. It’s a mixed bag that’s worth the exploration but don’t hold your breath on hooking up with your typical Yuba rainbow for a while.

The flows on the Yuba have been lowered for the fall and the river has been sitting at 1000 CFS for a couple of weeks now. I thought I would make a quick trip in the afternoon to check it out. The section below the bridge is looking pretty good as it has deepen a bit near the willows. I have a feeling this area is going to get hammered in the future due to how close it is to the entrance. I know there are a ton of fish that hold in this section but I’ve never had a lot of good luck unless there’s a good hatch happening. After throwing my flies around a bit I inflated by packraft and made way down the river.

I hadn’t plan on fishing very long so I didn’t go too far past the first bend. I hooked and landed a small rainbow and beat the skunk but the rest of my time was spent fishless. I fished familiar holes that looked super fishy but didn’t get a single bump. The stubwing stones are out as usual this time of year but I didn’t get any grabs on my rubberleg stone. Usually this time of year there’s a decent caddis hatch in the evening so I decided to wait until sunset to see if the magic hour would produce. As I waited I watched as hundreds of dragonflies gathered above the river. Usually when there are this many dragonflies around the fish can’t help but try and chase them but I didn’t a single rise or jump. As the light of the sun started to fade I had a gut feeling that the bugs weren’t going to show up. The Yuba typically fishes much better in the morning to afternoon but I guess you go fishing when you can go fishing. I hopped in my raft, crossed the river, packed my stuff, and started the hike back to the car. It took about 15-20mins from the first bend to get back to the car.

I plan on experimenting and figuring out the most effective way of getting around the Yuba in the future. Bikerafting the river to hit the holes further down is on the very top of the list. For those that are interested in fishing the Yuba at this time my recommendation is to go fish a different river. Whatever the Yuba has in store this year is not worth the effort now that the road is gated.

Truckee River

Truckee River Fly Rafting

July is my least favorite month. It’s the hottest and feels like the longest month of the year making it a slog to get through. Fish regardless of cold-water or warm-water don’t seem to be very active this time of year unless you’re fishing in the early morning or towards the evening. However this year is an exceptional one due to a heavy winter snowpack. Many rivers are surprisingly still running high and cool allowing for continued recreation. I had a few days of personal time and decided to beat the heat in the valley by making my way up the hill. It took some time trying to figure out where to go but I ultimately decided to revisit the Truckee River with a plan of hiking in and rafting out in my Alpacka Caribou.

It’s been several years since I’ve been on the Truckee River. I’ve been keeping track of the recent events regarding the river access at the Hirschdale section of the Truckee. In the past few years the area around the bridge changed ownership and the new owner has blocked off access points to the Truckee River that has been in use for decades. It’s been a messy situation and I commend all the folks out there who are fighting the good fight for the right to access the Truckee River. Of all the rivers in California I find that the Truckee River is one of the most cherished and protected. I hope the issue is resolved soon so that we can all enjoy the canyon section of the Truckee like we did in the past.

I’ve never had a lot of luck in the Hirschdale section and though I’ve caught fish there it didn’t fish any better than the other sections of the Truckee. The true bright spot in the Hirschdale section was the ability get a bit further away from civilization and fish the canyon. With all easily accessible accesses blocked off the only way to fish the canyon is by hiking upstream via Tahoe-Pyramid trail from Floriston to the Truckee River Wildlife Union Ice Unit between Hirschdale and Floriston. It’s not a long hike about 2.5 miles but it’s a lot of ground to cover before you can start fishing. I planned on fishing below the railroad bridge, raft my way downstream covering different spots, and take out before the Floriston Gorge.

I parked below the I-80 bridge at Floriston and made my way up the Tahoe-Pyramid trail at around 8am. It took me 45 minutes at a moderate pace to reach the railway bridge. The flows were a bit high around 725 CFS near Floriston. At these flows the Truckee River is impossible to safety cross so I utilize my Alpacka Caribou packraft to cross to the other side. I was euronymphing with my Echo Shadow II and put about a dozen fish into the net. All of the fish were on the smaller side around 10″. I managed to hook two larger fish in the 18″ range but they came off as soon as I set the hook. The Truckee River is a true 90% of the fish are in 10% of the water type fishery. I covered a ton of fishy water and found that most of the fish were in the softer white boils below or to the side of large rocks. There were mix reports about what the fish were eating so I had to figure it out by mixing up some patterns. I tried a combination of heavy streamer jigs with the hopes of entice the larger fish with a smaller go-to mayfly nymph as a dropper. There were a ton of caddis and yellow sallies flying along the banks but I didn’t see any fish rising for them. I throat pumped a few fish I caught and found that they were eating medium sized mayfly nymphs. The flies that were hot this day were stonefly nymphs and size 14 pheasant tail nymphs. The fishing was fair. I usually don’t catch a lot of big fish in July but it sucked to put in so much effort to only land a few small fish.

The Truckee River is well-known for its whitewater rafting and some of the best rapids can be found in the canyon section. I once went whitewater rafting on the Middle Fork of the American River and quickly found out that once was more than enough for me. I was hoping that floating down the Truckee River below the railroad bridge would be a breeze but found it to be pretty gnarly. I have some paddling experience rafting down the Yuba River and Feather River but I had to really prepare for the Truckee River.

I researched all the rapids and watched a ton of different runs on Youtube to get a good idea of what the rapids looked like. The most difficult rapids in the canyon were Railroad Rapid and Rock Garden. I pictured one long run but the rapids were broken into two sections. Railroad Rapid was swift as the gradient drops into a rapid with a large pool at the bottom and Rock Garden lives up to its name with rocks protruding all over the river. At Railroad Rapid I broke down by raft and portaged since I had already covered all the water I felt was fishy. I was debating whether or not I should run it but ultimately decided not to take any necessary risks. My portage is probably less than 20lbs give or take so there I didn’t have an excuse not break down my raft if needed. I put in above Rock Garden and found myself in quite a technical rapid. I would definitely classify Rock Garden as Class III as numerous obstacles and rapids made it challenging to navigate at these flows. Other than hitting two sleepers and getting some spray I managed to make my way through Rock Garden. My heart was racing and I learned real fast to make sure to breakdown all my equipment before going down any rapids. After this adventure I now know that my limit in my Alpacka Caribou is Class I to +II. If I had a self-bailing raft I would consider trying to run Class III but in the end would most likely portage to stay on the safe side.

The rapids below Rock Garden were Class II which was a relief; not a lot of quick on the spot thinking involved and a fun way to relax and make my way downstream to the take-out. I managed to accidently hit one last sleeper before the takeout which almost knocked me off. That taught me to pay attention at all times even when you think you’ve successful ran a rapid. The fishing was a bit disappointing and I’m sore as hell from all the bushwhacking, boulder hopping, and whitewater rafting but overall it was a good trip.

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