Patrick's Point, Yuba River

Starting The Year Right!

Rocky North Coast

The missus’ is a New Year baby and for her birthday this year we decide to take a trip to the coast. We both had a lot of fun exploring the gigantic redwoods and roaring saltwater coast. I tried some surf fly fishing for the first time but got skunked. Hit and miss, winter fly fishing at its finest!

Giant Redwood

Patrick’s Point is one of our favorite camping sites along the coast. The facility is open all-year around and has a ton of trails and things to see. Winter isn’t the greatest time to go camping but the coast remains relatively cool and tolerable if you time the weather right.

Tidepool Fun
Apparently There Are No Fish In The Ocean

After doing some research about surf perch and reading the surf, I tried surf fly fishing for the first time at Agate Beach. My excuse for getting skunked is that winter surf fishing can be a hit and miss. Favorable conditions come far in-between during the winter and with an incoming storm approaching I was really fighting the odds. By the time I gave up the swells were huge and too dangerous to fish. Hopefully I can get back out there during a different season and catch me my first saltwater fish.

First Fish of 2016

My first fish of 2016 was a trout caught with a bugger on the Yuba River. I swung flies the entire day in the rain. It was miserable.

Here is a list of things I want to accomplish in 2016:

1. This year I am going to try and work on innovating and learning more rather than focus on catching fish.

2. Adding a fly box page with patterns that I’ve come up with and others that have worked for me.

3. Improve and gain confidence in techniques that I don’t often use such as dry fly fishing and swinging.

4. Complete the Trout Heritage Challenge.

5. Fish the Upper Sacramento River, American River, and the King’s River.

6. Find new fishing spots around Marysville/Yuba City.

7. Catch a Truckee River brown trout.

Yuba River

Shhh… Don’t Tell Santa

Breaking In My New TFO Rod

With a good flush from a winter storm the Yuba is fishing pretty good. I managed to sneak out with my Christmas present, a TFO Finesse 5WT, and tested it out on some fatty Yuba bows above the bridge. The river is sitting at 590 CFS and the conditions were bright and cold.

Parks Bar

The TFO Finesse casts like butter. With very little effort, my presentations were super smooth and delicate. How can it get better than this? I’ve been looking for a good dry fly rod for rivers and wider streams and this is it. Not only does the rod cast extremely well, it is also pure fun to have a fish bend it in half. I am ecstatic to add this rod to my arsenal.

Nymphs that worked this trip were primarily San Juan worms, BWOs, and midges. There was a nice hatch of BWOs at around 1-3pm but I couldn’t find any risers. From what I observed this trip, the recent storm was able to trickle in some fresh salmon. Eggs anyone?

If landing one fish on the Yuba is considered a good day by most anglers by that logic I had an awesome day.
The fish were still pretty concentrated in certain areas but the bigger fish were active. Quality over quantity this trip. Cover water and don’t stay in one spot too long.

18” Fatty

I was able to find some risers at last light the following day. They looked like they were eating on top but they ignored every drift that I threw at them. With less than ten minutes left of sunlight, I switched to a smaller pattern in hopes of hooking up. I couldn’t even see the damn size 20 fly and I had a feeling that it wasn’t floating. After a few casts with no luck, I slightly delayed my recast and a fish hit it. Emergers!
I swung my dry fly like a wet fly and got two strikes with one landed. I love it when I figure something out by pure accident!

Last Light Fatty
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