Yuba goldfields, Yuba River

Indian Summer Days On The Yuba

by Matt
Couldn’t Believe How Bright It Was Today

The Yuba is pretty much fishing the same as it was this summer probably a little worse due to the lowered flows. From my experience fishing the Yuba over the past few years, I’ve found that Indian summer days are the most difficult conditions to fish the Yuba. Something about cold mornings and hot afternoons put these fish down in a bad mood.

Poor reports have kept anglers away from the Yuba these past few weeks. The fishing is slow and the bugs aren’t doing much. The fish are still around and willing to eat but they’ll make you work hard to catch them. It’s not a numbers game this time of year.

Although the salmon are around in particular runs and tail-outs, I must have counted less than fifteen today. The water is too warm for them to start dropping eggs so it’ll be a few weeks before the egg-bite starts here.
How warm is the water? I wet waded the entire day. The water is not cold enough.

I started below the bridge pitching nymphs with no indicator. After going through several different flies and fishing the run for about four hours with no takes I gave up nymphing. It was streamer time.

Gin Clear

I like fishing streamers because I can cover a lot of water and find the most aggressive fish. When nymph fishing I feel stagnant and slow. By the time I’m done fishing a run, several hours have passed with not even a nibble. Very frustrating.
Streamer fishing is the most hook-up/time efficient way for me to fish during tough conditions. My Hero Sculpin always does the trick.

My day ended with four hook ups but none landed. They felt like two nice size fish and two smaller ones. Not too shabby. I’ll get them next time. My recommendation is not use 8# mono as your leader off your versileader when streamer fishing. Its too flimsy and the slightest bit of slack will lose you a hooked fish.

I’m going to wait until fall truly gets here before I head back the the Yuba.

Yuba Goldfields
I am sad to say that largemouth bass season is officially over for me. After fishing Secret Pond for a bit, I found no takers. The fish are usually closer to the bank but they have migrated down and become lethargic.

Feather River, Yuba goldfields, Yuba River

It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Fall

by Matt
Fat Healthy September Bow

The leaves in the valley are starting to turn orange, brown, and yellow; all colors of the fall. The temperature has also been on the decline despite the triple digit heat wave that we had last week. September is a transitional month leading into October, one of the best months to go fishing. Although September can sometimes be hot all the way up until the following month, we have been blessed this year with early lowering temperatures. If timed right, you can find excellent angling opportunities as the fish go on a feeding frenzy to prepare for the winter. I haven’t gotten out much due to the heat but here is just a little update on my recent trips to the Yuba and Shanghai Bend.

Pretty Yuba Bow

Yuba River
Upstream of HWY 20 bridge is now closed until December 1st, therefore anglers will now have to concentrate downstream of the bridge. The Lower Yuba River in the fall is one of the most pressured valley waters during the salmon egg bite. The river is easily wadeable and a lot of fish are on the bite meaning possible crowded conditions. Hopefully the salmon won’t have too much of a problem moving upstream this year which such low conditions. The egg hatch doesn’t really start until late October so until then its either nymphing or streamers. With lower water levels, >600CFS, nymphing can be more productive throughout the day than streamers but streamers will always produce better quality fish. There is also a late evening caddis hatch for dry fly enthusiast.

This trip I decided to try something different with my presentation. I’ve read about using a full sinking fly line for streamer fishing. So far I’ve only used floating line and sink tips so this was an experiment to find which was more productive. Armed with a type IV full sink line, I tried my luck.

First Couple of Overcast Days In A While

The day was overcast and I actually got rained on earlier in the morning; the first raindrops of the fall. It was a great day to be out on the river and I had it all to myself. This marked my first time throwing streamers downstream of the bridge and I did pretty well considering how low the water is. The day ended with five hits, three takes, and two landed all on the Hero Sculpin. Nice healthy 16”+ bows too.

Yuba Goldfields
After catching a few trout on the Yuba River, I ended the trip with a visit to Secret Pond. The bass are on the feed and are all post-spawned leaving them skinny and hungry. The sinking line worked great for the pond and caught me a few nice bass. These largemouth aren’t as hard fighting as Yuba bows but they are super fun to catch.

Big Mouth Skinny Bass

Feather River – Shanghai Bend
The Feather is where I first tested out my full sinking line streamer set-up. It took a bit of time to get use to the casting and retrieving, but I eventually got the hang of it and caught a few bonus fish. The bass out here are abundant but they really like to sample the fly versus eating it.

Shanghai Bend Hardhead

I’d like to fish the Truckee but the drought conditions are really messing up the flows there. As of right now it’s bare minimum below Boca. A lot of California anglers are leaving the Truckee alone until the flows come back up. I’m going to try and get back up to Plumas County to fish Lake Davis and the North Fork of the Feather. The fish are beginning to turn on for the fall bite and there is little fishing pressure right now. This is the perfect time to get in on the action before the fall rush.

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Keep Calm and Fly Fish™