Lake Englebright, Yuba River

Lake Englebright On The Fly

by Matt

Lake Englebright is one of the few lakes within 30 minutes drive of my location. I’ve fished it once in the past during the spring and actually managed to catch two fish, a rainbow trout and a spotted bass. I’ve been itching to get out onto some stillwater and decided to check out Lake Englebright again to see if I could get the winter float and fly technique to work for me.

Lake Englebright is a very steep lake that is typically kept full. There is no room for wading therefore a boat is the best method to fish this lake successfully. I was debating between using my float tube or kayak and ultimately chose the kayak again because the float tube would only be able to get me out so far. It would be too dangerous to kick all the way out to where I wanted to be and back within the time frame I wanted to fish. I also needed to find the fish and being limited to fishing between the two boat launches would be a waste of $5 parking.

It’s been awhile since I’ve used my Intex Challenger K1 inflatable kayak. The last time I used this kayak I had accidently put a hole in it while bringing it back the bank during my trip to Lake Crowley; needless to say I will definitely be more careful with this one. It took me about 30 minutes to completely rig up and though my confidence was a bit shaken from having my last kayak fail I quickly regained it all back once I was out on the water.

I brought my cheapo fish finder with me to try and help me find the correct fishing depth. Most of the time the ideal fly fishing depths between 10′ – 15′ were right off the bank. All the possible “fish” the finder mapped where way deep near the bottom. The water was also very clear and I estimated I could probably see about 10′ into the water. Although this helped me identify structure, weed beds, etc it most likely made the fish more spooky. It was going to be a tough day.

I initially worked the float and fly around a few steep drop offs hoping that I would find suspended spotted bass. After a few hours went by with no grabs I switched to a type 6 full sinking line stripping flies. Despite covering quite a bit of water neither of these techniques worked. Towards the end of the day I though perhaps trolling would be the best way to approach these slow winter fishing conditions. I figured with a full sinking line I could probably let out a bit of line and slowly troll around while enjoying some paddling.

I finally got my first grab while floating around one of the coves on the northern end however as soon as I went to set the hook the fish was already gone. Maybe having the fly rod between my legs wasn’t the best way to do this whole trolling thing. Unfortunately I didn’t get any grabs the rest of the day. I’m currently working on ideas on how to become more efficient and effective on the kayak the next time I return to Lake Englebright. I may wait until the spring to try again after reading that the big pen grown rainbows that the marina raises are released during that time. The one good thing about fishing from a kayak is that even if you don’t catch a single fish the paddling and floating is always fun.

I fished the Yuba before the hurricane storm and found a bunch of nice fish in a run that I’ve never fished before. Hopefully we get some much needed rain and snow within the next few days.

Pyramid Lake, Yuba River

A Few Winter Outings

by Matt

Dad life has officially taken over. I’ve been getting very little time on the water as my now 10 month old son has grown to become more and more interesting every day. In the past I’ve been able to leave the missus at home alone to wet my line but now every time I’m away from the both of them it makes me feel bad. Babies grow fast. I love fly fishing but there’s no love like having a little one.

This year I’ve been in the honeymoon phase of child rearing so not being able to catch a few key hatches hasn’t had too much of a FOMO (fear of missing out) effect on me. My go-to place to fish this year has been the Yuba River. I can catch fish out there year around however I find that hiking around to get some exercise is more important than a few into the net. With COVID19, a mostly sitting office job, and taking care of a little one the infamous dad bod creeps up quick.

I was able to get out to Pyramid a week ago and didn’t do to well despite tying a few fresh balance leeches, nymphs, and midges. I had three strikes but failed to set the hook on all three. I started out at my favorite spot, Warrior Point, and tried Windless Bay and Pelican as the day went by. The anglers who were in kayaks and boats were doing really well which led me to believe that the fish were further out in deeper water that I couldn’t reach. For future winter outings on Pyramid I’ll be sticking to the deeper beaches and bringing along a float tube. With not being able to put as much time on the water as I would like I need to start maximizing my effectiveness as best as I can.

To make up for my skunk on Pyramid Lake I put in a few hours on the Yuba River. Conditions during my outing on the Yuba River were a bit tough with rising barometric pressure and clearing skies. The fishing was initially slow however once I found a fish and changed my flies things started to turn around fast.

Some anglers look down on the idea of throat pumping however as I mentioned earlier with being effective on the water a throat pump is a tool that will not only help you catch more fish but also help you learn the body of water you’re fishing. I started with a BWO nymph and PMD nymph which typically do really well doing this time of year however despite seeing a bunch of BWOs and pinkies coming off in the afternoon I didn’t get a single take. I thought about trying dries but searching for fish on a dry fly rather than head hunting for risers just doesn’t appeal to me. I switched to a rubberlegs and finally got my first grab. I throat sampled my catch and found two small stonefly nymphs and to my surprise three green caddis larva. I adjusted my rig replacing the nymph for a caddis larva and hooked a bunch of fish the rest of the day. Most of my grabs were from the rubberlegs but the biggest came from the caddis larva.

There are so many places that I would like to go but I’m morally shackled by my own will to streams and stillwaters within an hour drive. I’m thinking about trying to learn the float-n-fly for bass for my next outing to expand my options. The more the merrier.

Happy new years!

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