Yuba River

Mama Said Mama Said There’d Be Days Like This

Epic Yuba Blowout

The biggest Yuba blowout within the last three years finally happened with the river reaching over 15,000 CFS within a 24-hours. Although the previous 10,000 CFS blowout was decent, this one was able to create a few new contours that will be interesting to fish.

New Sand Bank

The flows have stabilized a bit but the river is still muddy and recovering. As I hiked around I noticed a lot of areas with vegetation facing downstream. From what I observed throughout the day, the flows must have gotten crazy high reaching most of the willows close to the banks. The fish will be eating well.

Right Place. Wrong Fish

I was able to get four hook ups with one landed by high-sticking the seams. The first three felt like nice sized trout that I couldn’t bring out of faster water. The last hook up was a beatis eating sucker  that was fun to land.

With a great warming forecast for the next two weeks, I will start focusing on figuring out the warm-water pattern of Ellis Lake. The prespawn will be on and I’m going to catch me a monster out of the crap hole.

Yuba River

Muddy Water? No Problem!

Yuba River Mud Bow

The Yuba is slowly recovering after getting blasted with 10,000+ CFS about a week ago. The water clarity was pretty low the first day I was there but it got a bit clearer the following day. Despite the clarity issues, I was able to find fish both days with relative ease. You just need to know where to look.

Fish close to the banks, look for seams, look for structure, and cover water. The basics.

Pretty Rainbows

Be confident in knowing that trout can see perfectly fine when the water is muddy. If they couldn’t see in dirty water they wouldn’t survive very long.
Mayfly nymphs, San Juan worms, and midges were all on the menu.

There have been quite a few anglers out on the river and I like to avoid them as much as possible. When I find five anglers in a popular run I go off and fish the secret nooks and crannies that no one fishes. I always find fish there.

Skwala Powa

The real hype right now are the skwalas. I wasn’t looking for them but I did find one dancing in the water. Guide Jon Baiocchi has a more thorough report on that shindig.

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