Summer is around the corner and I’ve been itching to find new spots for my favorite bass, the smallmouth bass. Big Chico Creek has always been my go-to creek for smallmouth fishing due to the ease of access and abundant bass population however the drive is a bit much unless I have other plans in town. For the past couple of months I’ve been doing research to find smallmouth streams that are closer to home and now that the weather has warmed up I can finally get out there to take a look.
Smallmouth bass can be found throughout many of the major watersheds in California occupying low elevation rivers and streams that run warm and have rocky structure. Although I can technically fishing for smallmouth in town out on the Feather and Yuba River my favorite places to fish for them are small creeks. There’s nothing quite like summer wet wading in a clear freshwater stream fly fishing for small yet strong smallmouth bass using poppers or streamers.
The South Fork of the Yuba River is the one of the rivers that I’ve been hoping to check out. The drive is relatively short and I’ve seen pictures and read articles of anglers catching plenty of smallmouth out there. I’ve scouted the SFYR at Bridgeport with my small family back in January but the water was a bit high and dirty. I didn’t fish it that visit however I am curious to know if there are any resident trout from Lake Englebright that run up the SFYR to spawn.
I typically don’t find bass until the water gets warmer in late May or June so after chasing trout for past several months I was finally able to do a warm-water fish trip. The SFYR was much lower this visit and looking crystal clear. We hiked about a half mile downstream and settled for a beachy spot. After playing with the kiddo, catching tadpoles and stacking rocks, I lined my fly rod with a woolly bugger to try and find some smallmouth.
The water was nice and warm however there was a strong wind that rippled the surface making it hard to spot fish. I found a pool below a small riffle that had tons of hardhead stacked up and caught one on my first cast. Seeing as the hardhead were in the moving water I waded upstream and found a slower pool where I caught my first SFYR smallmouth. There were periods throughout the day when the wind died down and the surface calmed where I was able to spot several more smallmouth in the 6” – 10” range. I tied on small popper and was able to get two grabs before the wind started up again.
I wasn’t able to explore this section of the SFYR as much as I wanted to however I was happy to have found what I set out to find. I know that the SFYR at Bridgeport can get pretty busy over the summer so I’m hoping I can figure out days where there are less people and enjoy a bent fly rod.
