Deer Creek, Ellis Lake, Horseshoe Lake, Yuba River

Sometimes You Win and Sometimes They Win

Yuba River Bow 16”

Summer is coming to an end and fishing has been pretty good. I’ve been fishing here and there catching some and losing some. I often never get skunked but I will admit that I enjoy it when I do. Fly fishing is challenging and each aspect of your presentation is important. If the fish aren’t taking then your doing something wrong and need to adjust your presentation. If you go all day without a single take then the fish have won for the day. That is one of the reasons I keep coming back to bodies of waters that are difficult to fish.

What I liked most from transitioning from spin fishing to fly fishing is that I can feel like I did my best to try and catch fish. With a fly its all about presentation and fighting the fish properly. Make a single error and the fish is gone. Throwing bait or tossing lures all day just isn’t fun and once you hook one it takes about 30 seconds to reel them in. You can’t appreciate the power and fight of the fish. Although there is some skill in gear fishing I just find it boring. But that’s just my opinion.

Yuba River
The more I return to this river the more confident I get in my skills of fishing it. The Yuba is super technical water and requires perfect presentation and knowledge of the river’s hatches. I fished the river two days before and hooked one on a foam hopper and a nice 16-18” on a nymph but I couldn’t land them. Today broke my record of catching trout for the summer. My biggest fish was a 16” bow out of the three I caught. The fish were taking mayfly and stonefly nymphs with no indicator. A little bit of thunder and lightning made the day a bit more interesting. Waving a fly rod back and forth is just asking to get hit by lightning. These Yuba River fish are the hardest fighting bows in California, patience and skill is required to hook and land these powerful fish. They fish like steelhead and fight like them as well. A day with a single bow on the Yuba is a good day spent.
 

Beware the clouds

Deer Creek
Manda and I hit up the creek for my birthday. I missed a couple of big fish but the fish there are still hungry and the water below Red Bridge is still pretty nice for the summer almost being over. The fish were a bit finicky but good fishing nonetheless.

Birthday Trout

Ellis Lake
Beside my brother losing a piece of my rod… We had a contest on who can catch the smallest fish as the big fish were not biting. Nick won with a LMB fry. We also had a turtle come up to us wanting to be fed. We hooked a bluegill and tried to feed it but it didn’t get a good enough grip and lost its food. Bluegills all day though. Lake is weird.

Baby Bass

Horseshoe Lake
Clooping carp get my adrenaline pumping. I spent hours trying to get one to take my fly but nothing worked. I was so frustrated that I just left and googled how to catch clooping carp on a fly. I think I’ll use some scent on my flies the next time I get out there and see how that works for me.

I’m ready for steelhead season to start. Hopefully I’ll do better this year since I understand the fish and the river better. Summer is almost over and its been pretty rad.

Big Chico Creek, Deer Creek, North Fork Feather River, Yellow Creek

Small Fish Up. Big Fish Down

Yellow Creek

As July becomes the hottest month of the year a lot of the big fish have disappeared leaving the smaller fish the dominant catch of the summer. This past week I’ve taken the time to explore some new water and while my results were pretty disappointing, its always nice to have an adventure.

Deer Creek
I’ve been fish Red Bridge with great success. I know almost every hole that produces the biggest fish in the creek and with that knowledge I decided to look elsewhere for big fish. I drove out to K Road and waded upstream close to Lower Deer Creek Falls. Although there were some really nice holes I didn’t catch anything too exciting. Most of the fish were around 5” by far some of the smallest fish I’ve caught on the creek.

Deer Creek Trout

I left around 7:00pm and fished above Red Bridge and got into some bigger fish.
A few days later I decided to fish above Potato Patch Campground and near Upper Deer Creek Falls. I hooked into a few trout that ripped some line out probably around 14” but I didn’t land any. Due the to drought perhaps the water is slightly colder upstream and the trout have migrated up? I saw a few salmon in the deeper holes which is a good sign despite the drought.

North Fork Feather River
Manda and I went up HWY 70 to fish and look for blackberries. We stopped around Storrie to fish the boulders. I tight-lined a stonefly and mayfly nymph for a bit but after checking the water temperature at around 70 – 73 degrees I decided to look elsewhere for fish.

Yellow Creek
We drove further up towards Belden and I fished Yellow Creek. There is something special about fishing the streams in the Plumas National Forest, it’s quite magical and I don’t really know why or how to explain it. The scenery is just amazing.

The creek was easy to access and the water was colder so after covering some water I got into a few fish that were your typical creek sized trout. I was hoping to catch some bigger fish that swam up the creek from the North Fork due to the warmer water but I didn’t have much luck.

Yellow Creek Trout

Big Chico Creek
The smallie fishing is still good. There have been schools of big pike minnow that I haven’t been able to get into, but the smallies are still plentiful and aggressive. I saw a few big ones that were hiding in the shade but I couldn’t get them to take. Still lots of fun.

BCC Smallie

I’m kind of fed up with summer. I’ll probably just take it easy until late summer early fall for the fishing to pick back up again. Weather is too damn hot.

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