Yuba River

May Flows Are Beginning To Go

Beautiful Yuba Bruiser

Rejoice! The Yuba is at 2,500 CFS. Not the best flows but it’s the lowest it’s been since the big storms in March. The river is coming into shape revealing new contours and structure. As of right now I’m not sure if I like the new areas that I’m seeing. From what I’ve observed, the good is that there will be more safe areas to cross the river but the bad is that there aren’t as many holding spots for fish.

Hiked A Lot

The bug life is quite minimal right now. I flipped over a couple rocks in the new areas that looked promising and found very few nymphs. Not a whole lot happening while I was out there. A few midges, caddis, and one yellow sally.

Despite fluctuating high flows, the Yuba trout are still around growing strong and healthy. The fish seem to be holding in nooks and crannies near structure that anglers may overlook. The most perfect and ideal seams that were just right in both flow and depth, a goldilocks spot, were the only areas that produced hard fighting Yuba natives. Trying to find where these goldilocks spots were was tough. The big flows have moved a lot of bright stone to the bank which makes the fish less likely to hold there, too easily seen by predators. Cover water like a boss and keep moving.

Second Fish In The Net

Poxyback golden stones were the hot pattern. Golden stones will start moving around in May and June so it makes sense that the fish are on them. Luckily a bigger pattern means a better landing ratio. I went two for three this trip.
When I fish the Yuba I don’t expect to land more than two fish. What the Yuba lacks in numbers it makes up for it in fight.

Lots of Salmon Fry Around Still
Feather River, Yuba River

Shad Colors Starting To Show

Poorman’s Tarpon

Summer is around the corner. How do I know? Well, the American Shad are in town. Unlike the coming of the salmon run in the fall, the coming of the American shad run is shrouded in mysticism.

Once every year when the cottonwood trees bloom…

Feather River at Star Bend

The American shad shares many similarities with California’s native steelhead. They both come in chrome, fight hard, taste great, and are fun to target. The biggest difference between the two is that one is easier to eat than the other.
The legend of the Micmac Indians tells that porcupine was discontented and asked the Great Spirit of Manitou to change him into something else. The Spirit responded by turning the creature inside out and tossed him into the river where it now had the new existence as a Shad.
Filleting an American shad is like trying to perform amateur surgery but if you can get some good meat out of them they taste like an anadromous catfish.

It’s no secret that the Feather River’s Shanghai Bend is one of the most popular places to fish for shad. The structure of the bend is a great spot for anadramous fish to hold as they make their way upriver. During a quick visit to the bend about a week ago, I saw a few gear anglers hook into some chrome shad. It was great to see the fish there but the water that they were holding in was near impossible to fish on a fly. Would it be possible to find these fish in a more fly rod friendly area?

I decided to take a chance this week. Despite rainy and off-color water conditions on this particular day, I was able to hook and land a big strong hen that almost got away. This marks my first shad from the Feather River.

FR Shad

Before I moved, the Sacramento River outside of Chico was my shad spot.
However now that I am in Yuba City, I have to find new spots to fish for
shad. Luckily both the Yuba River and the Feather River hold shad and
are only a few minutes away.
I will be exploring both rivers to find less pressured spots as the run continues. Early in the season is usually when anglers combat fish for shad in the more popular spots. The fish are still trickling in but once they get here it’ll be on. These chrome domes will keep my line tight until the flows on the Yuba go down.

Yuba River
The Yuba is at 2,700 CFS which is much more fishable than 3,000+ CFS. I was able to find three pissed off and jumpy fish before attempting to catch the evening hatch. In the evening I saw a few fish rise but unfortunately there wasn’t enough surface activity to have a enough fish looking up. No fish landed this trip but finding them was the next best thing.

Quite Flats…
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