Ellis Lake, Yuba goldfields, Yuba River

Spring Break: Day 1 and Day 2

The first two days of spring break have been fantastic. The warm-water fish are definitely awake and hungry.

Day 1: Popper Power
The first day of spring break was spent fishing the Goldfields and the fishing was phenomenal. The Yuba River was sitting at a very low 590 CFS and was gin clear. This usually means the river fishing is tough as nails and extremely technical. I didn’t want to devote the entire day to the river so I spent most of my time hiking around looking for new ponds.

 Monster Bluegillz

The day started with a streamer but after seeing a few bass close to the bank and near the surface I switched to a popper. That little froggy popper caught me fish all day until the little last bit of light. Although the pop and sit technique worked well my favorite was the pop after pop explosion. The fish weren’t very big but they took that popper with no mercy. Heart-stopping action!
This was a fantastic way to start the break.

Say “Ah”

Day 2: No Bait
The second day of spring break I fished Ellis Lake. The bass weren’t very active for some reason, possibly due to the small cold front the night before. I fished the north lake first and landed a nice catfish but after covering quite a bit of water with no takes I decided to see if the south lake was fishing better.

Ellis Lake Cat on a fly

Once I arrived on the south lake I finally hooked a bass that I immediately lost. My next few casts I get a take and its a big one. Arm wrenching! The fish took me all the way into my backing. I couldn’t tell what it was. Ten pound bass? Ten pound catfish? It couldn’t be a carp because I didn’t see any signs of carp in the area. Once I got it close enough, its a carp! On a streamer of all flies. She probably mistook the streamer for a crayfish.

Ellis Lake Streamer Carp

I got quite a bit of intel on the Feather River so that’s where I’ll be tomorrow. My fingers are crossed on landing a steelhead.

Butte Creek, Ellis Lake, Yuba goldfields, Yuba River

Closer To The First Greens of Spring

I’ve been out a few times the past month and haven’t had much luck on the winter bite. With the good amount of rainfall passing last weekend and a warming trend of 70 degrees, a lot of the plant and wildlife have woken up. It’s been quite beautiful out there and I’d be punching myself in the face if I didn’t spend sometime outdoors.

Fish On!

Ellis Lake
I’ve been tracking the pattern of the lake and so far the fish aren’t active yet. I fished during the storm which wasn’t the brightest idea. I was also on the lake a week after the storm and with the warming trend passing through I was hoping a few prespawn fish would be active. I was wrong.
As I’ve observed before, the first bedding bass usually don’t start becoming active until March. I will continue tracking the pattern for the lake in hopes of finding some quality bass in a not so quality place.

Yuba Goldfields
I fished around the ponds today and found a few active fish. Definitely prespawn bass. There are a lot of small fish, bass and bluegill, hanging around vegetation while the bigger fish are either in deeper water (which I did not have luck fishing) or in flats near potential spawning beds. The water was relatively warm despite a few wind gusts here and there. The fish were pretty grabby which is a good sign. I tried a bunny leech in purple this time and it did pretty well. I’ve always had a lot of luck with the color purple when it came to bass. Its still a bit early but I know more fish will start becoming active as spring approaches.

Preggo Prespawn Bass
Purple Leech Eaters

Yuba River
The flows are a good 750 CFS with good color as well. I think we got what we needed here; the conditions are ideal for fishing. I didn’t cover the river as much as I usually do but I did go 2/3 in one riffle and anyone who fishes the Yuba knows that’s a good day. There were A LOT of cars on the Parks Bar side of the river so I don’t know how well that part of the river is fishing, either really good that everyone is fishing there or really bad because everyone is fishing there. Below the bridge there is less pressure which is more enjoyable both in tranquility and in fishing. The fish I caught took a rubberleg and an S&M nymph. Super strong fish despite their size. I was using 4x and 5x tippet so it took a bit maneuvering to get them in.
I didn’t see any skwalas while I was there. I did see a few risers and quite a few midges and brown mayflies.

Yuba Native Beauty
This One Kinda Looked Like a Frog

Butte Creek
The creek is closed now and unfortunately the flows were a bit too high to fish productively before it closed. I fished my usual holes and found it difficult to wade in spots I usually had no trouble getting to. The steelhead most likely just raced up with the flows being around 400 CFS.

The almond trees are blooming and the plants around here are starting to bud. Spring is around the corner and I can’t wait.

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