Keep Calm and Fly Fish

Typical North Fork Pocket Deep Pool

After fishing the Feather a day every week, I felt like I needed a change in scenery. Thus to start my week I fished the North Fork of Feather River. I also had a few things I needed to pick up from Marysville so I spent some time on the Yuba river and at the ponds with my brother on Saturday as well.

North Fork Feather River
This river experienced four white water releases for rafters within this summer. The white water release are bad for the fish because it blows out the river and flushes a lot of the insect life with it. The isonychia mayflies are the biggest attraction of North Fork and they usually start to emerge in October until late-November. I did not find a single shuck on any of the boulders while fishing today. This is bad news for the river as it is one of the few streams that remains partially open after trout season ends.

Despite the lack of food, I did manage to find and catch a few 12” – 14” trout by tight-lining and swinging an isonychia pattern in deep pocket pools and runs. The water is still a bit too warm around Pulga but the temperature is perfect above Rock Creek Dam.

Beautiful North Fork Wild Trout

As I fished and explored this new section of water, I had a lot fun wading and hopping over the boulders to get to the spot I knew the fish were holding. Its some pretty hardcore stuff because the rocks are huge and slippery in addition to water being deep. One slip and your life may be at risk. Being good at reading water and your surroundings will keep you safe.

I was amazed at how beautiful the water and surroundings looked. The water was clear and had a tint of green. The sky was also nice and overcasted. As soon as I set the hook I could see the fish flash its chrome colored sides as it fought to rid itself of the hook. Perfect awesome way to begin the week.

North Fork Pano

Yuba River/Goldfields
Nick wanted to go fishing and I was in town so… might as well go fishing. The Yuba was less crowded than it was last weekend, I assume everyone went to the Feather for steelhead. I didn’t get to fish much this time because I was teaching Nick how to properly fly fish moving water. After hooking and losing 3 nice fish on a 3wt and Nick not getting anything on the 6wt, I asked if he wanted to give into the river’s wrath. He gave up a few minutes later and we decided to fish the ponds.

We were able to explore more ponds this time around but Nick couldn’t beat the skunk. I caught a nice 15” bass on a bunny leech that I’ve never fish before. The action in that fly is phenomenal. As we pond hopped, we literally found a bunch more 10”+ bass but they were being lethargic and wary of our flies. I found the magic fly before we left but didn’t catch anything else but bluegills for the rest of the day.