Ellis Lake, Yuba River

Beautiful Spring

by Matt
First Crappie of 2014

Spring is in full fling as my allergies have been killing me this last week. Regardless, I am still out doing what I love to do; fly fishing. Its been really windy and warm which basically means I feel miserable which therefore means that I am not really enjoying being out as much as I would like to. I’m still chasing carp at Horseshoe Lake and managed to hook a few but no landing as of recently. I’m currently on sort of a mini vacation at home and fished Ellis Lake and the Yuba river.

Ellis Lake
The weather today was pretty warm and windy. I was hoping to find some carp like I did last week but were no signs of carp anywhere. Nick and I fished around twice, once in the morning and later in the afternoon with no luck on anything big. The bluegills were taking every fly we tossed in front of them though. The only fish worth bragging about were the two crappies that I hooked. For some reason the bass are not very active still. I’m guessing their in early lockjawed postspawn. I’m going back tomorrow to see if I can get into some bigger fish.

Orange tips and tiger stripes
2nd Crappie

Yuba River
The water is low around 761 CFS. Nick and I fished a honey hole and I manage to hook into a nice rainbow. Although Nick didn’t land anything, he learned how to truly fly fish which was pretty cool to watch. He did get some takes but no hook ups. I probably won’t spend too much time on Yuba due to the low flows and spooky fish.

Yuba River Trout

More updates on my mini vacation coming up soon…


2nd day min-vacation
Nick and I hit up the Yuba River again and there were a few guide boats out. I managed into hook two small trout before we left. The river and weather was beautiful but the fish just weren’t hitting as well as I had hoped.

After a small break I decided to go fish Ellis Lake before heading back to Chico. I was there for several hours and managed to be there during the bread hatch. The carp were feeding on the bread that people had thrown in hours back. I managed to hook two but the first one snapped off and the other one spit the hook. These carp learn fast and refused my fly several times.
Needless to say I was disappointed but that’s fly fishing for you. I’m hoping to get back out there soon and land another Ellis Lake monster carp.

Feather River, Sacramento River, Yuba River

Ends of February

by Matt
Yuba River Hen

Rain has arrived and we got quite a bit of it. With that a lot of good fishing happened and I was lucky enough to get a few here and there. The water is starting to clear now and later this week there will be more rain to change the color and rise our rivers to make it fishing excellent again. Let it rain, let it rain. Lets go Sac River, Feather River, and Yuba River!

Sacramento River
The Washout in Chico was fishing pretty well with
the release of the planter run. I probably missed it about a week or two
but they were there for the amount of time I fished. They weren’t big but they were rising like crazy and would eat any dry I threw at
them. It was nice to get some action on a dry fly this early in the
season. This part of the river was blown out by the rain but it was fun
while it lasted.

Sac River Trout

Feather River
I have never fished the Feather above the HWY 70 bridge. I now realize how great a fishery this area is for steelhead since it is literally next to the hatchery. The water was dirty and the sky was overcasted making it the perfect time to fish for steelhead. I hooked a few and lost them but I landed one for each day that I went there. These fish are tricky to get to bite but once you hook one they put up a great fight. These fish were taking eggs and small fry patterns. The fishing became difficult as the the water is now clear making the fish a lot more wary of what is going on around them. Although not crowded while I was there, there is a limited space in this section. I guess I am just use to fishing with less people. Hopefully the water dirties up within the next rain to make the fish aggressive again.

Post Spawned Steelhead

Yuba River
I went to the Yuba after the rains thinking it wouldn’t but as blown out as I thought it was going to be. The water was very muddy and the clarity was less than 1ft but I manage to hook a nice fish in the spot that I knew they would be holding. The skwalas were around making it pretty easy to match what they would be eating but the Yuba River is always unforgiving especially when the clarity is so bad.

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Keep Calm and Fly Fish™