Lower Yuba River - Fishing Report 01-28-11

I fished the Lower Yuba yesterday with Greg DeYoung and his son Tucker. I always get excited when I get a chance to take a father and son team fishing. It's what I always think is the best thing about fly fishing. Getting out with your family or friends and enjoying the outdoors.

The bite was a little slow in the morning with the weather a little colder and then the fog clearing out by mid morning for a generally clear and somewhat warm day. We picked up a few fish swinging flies in the tailouts and nymphing the edges when we were hiking and wading in the morning. We fished the edges along the runs was slow in the morning session. Just a couple of fish. But that has been the trend lately. The fishing has typically picked up as the day gets warmer.

At about 12:30 we started floating down the river in my drift boat and found fish in the lower portion of the runs where the water was deeper and moving at a medium to slow walking speed. The after noon was not red hot by any means but consistent. We didn’t concentrate on the willow runs with Skwala Dries much, but Tucker did manage a nice 17” +/- rainbow on a foam Skwala Dry.




We located a few pods of fish stationed in the lower ends of the runs a fair ways above the tailouts where we got hits on most passes through with deep indicator methods and landed quite a few. All and all we had a pretty productive day.




At about 4:00 we went down and through a chute and I eddied out in the corner of a riffle. As soon as I eddied out at the riffle corner, a fish hit Greg's nymph and freight trained down stream. Before we knew it, gone. That's that way it goes sometimes with a big fish. They hit, take off downstream and before you know it or can even get a game plan together, gone. The only thing left is the questions, steelhead? and how big?

As we still pondered that fish, I headed down and eddied out in the next corner of the riffle and the same thing happened, off to the races. I followed this one down and we managed to work the fish to the side and after a couple of spirited runs Greg and I were able to get out of the boat and were able to net it. Whew! It fish was the fish of the day, a fat chromer that went 20” or 21”.



I had a great day with Greg and Tucker and it is one of my favorite experiences getting a father and son on the river. It was a treat to see them enjoying themselves on the river and of course catching fish. It's my hope to see more of this in the future. Like I've always said.
"It's about Life and Fly Fishing"

Notes and Impressions

It’s still my overall impression that the fish are looking up opportunistically on the edges and there just aren’t enough Skwalas to have them really locking in on a very sparse emergence. This will change in the upcoming weeks as the real Skwala emergence starts up. Stay tuned.

Flows: 3000 out of Englbright and about 175 out of Deer Creek for a total of 3175 +/-

Color: Bluer than Green with visibility of about 8 feet

Bugs: A number of PMD’s, a couple of Skwala’s in the drift. I searched the rocks along and below the riffles and didn’t see many Skwala cases.

Bugs of the Day: Best Producer, still the Rubberleg Stone in a light brown with a green tint, copper johns, 7mm natural troutbeads.

Rigging: Deep Indicator Nymphing with heavy shot. We were having enough success with nymphing that we didn’t really try a dry rigg with a Skwala Dry much. We had success when we swung the lower portions of the runs above the riffles, but not right above the tailouts where the current speed picked up.

Guides Panel Presentation for the GCFF

For the February 1st meeting of the Gold Country Fly Fishers, I'm going to be presenting a 12 minute slide show, plus or minus, you know how slide shows go, prior to the "Guides Panel" question and answer session about fishing the Lower Yuba River.

The "Guides Panel" will consist of Gold Country Fly Fisher's members, Tom Page of Foothill Fly Fishing Expeditions, Keith Scott of West Slope Drifters and myself representing Fly Fishing Traditions. The moderators will be Trent Pridemore and Frank Rinella. They will start the question and answer session with some questions and then open the questions up to the members.

Here's a list on questions that we've been tossing around to give you an idea.

(1) How do you go about deciding what flies to use on any given day.

(2) How do you tell which places on the river are the best places to fish.

(3) How do you determine what is the best fishing outfit to use on a given day, dry rod, nymph rod, switch rod etc.

(4) If you were going to make a suggestion of the best, all around outfit for fishing the Lower Yuba and you could only afford one, what would you choose? Rod, Reel, Line.

(5) What are your top five attractor nymphs that you could not do without?

(6) What time of year would you say that the average fisherman would have the best chance of being successful on the Lower Yuba?

(7) What is your favorite hatch on the Lower Yuba and why?

(8) What is the most productive method of fishing the Lower Yuba River.

(9) How do you like to rigg for indicator nymphing and why.

(10) If you had to pick one thing that most anglers need to improve on to become more accomplished anglers on the Lower Yuba River what would it be.

(11) What is the difference between a steelhead and a trout on the Lower Yuba River.

(12) Should I fish for trout and steelhead when the salmon are on their redds?

(13) Is it necessary to carry specific patterns to match the hatches on the Lower Yuba River? If so, which hatches?

(14) What the heck is steak and eggs?

(15) Why would you suggest that someone hire a guide for a day on the Lower Yuba River and what should they expect.

(16) Who do you admire most as a fly fishing mentor, author, or educator.

(17) Are there any books, videos, etc, that you would recommend to help a fly fisher improve their game.

(18) Where are your secret spots on the river. Just Kidding!

So, if you've got the time try to make it to the next meeting of the Gold Country Fly Fishers. It will be on Tuesday, February 1, at the Ponderosa Building (formerly known as the Senior Center) in Nevada County Fairgrounds - Grass Valley. Use Gate #2. The General Meeting starts at 7:00 PM.

I'll also be doing a table clinic on the Skwalas on the Lower Yuba prior to the general meeting starting at 5:45.

Come on out it'll be a fun meeting.

Clay

Fishing Report 01/22/11

With this spring like weather and consistent flows on the Lower Yuba I've been trying to get down to the river as often as possible. It seems like we often get this warm stretch of weather in January, it just seems right to take advantage of it. That and the fact the Skwalas should start really showing up soon.

Friday 01/22/11

I made it back out on Friday with Mike Williams and his son Todd. I had offered to help Mike get more comfortable rowing the river in his Hyde drift boat. My plan was to sit in the rear seat and coach him down the river, help him line up correctly for the drops through riffles and shoots, maneuver around the corners, coach oar strokes and such. I did, but I also fished more than I was planning on. The fishing was pretty darn good.

We had been picking fish up on rubberlegs and trout beads about equally last week, with an occasional fish on a Copper John, Prince, or similar attractors, but on Friday it was definitely the rubber legs, about 4 to 1. The fish continued to be holding in the runs, further below the riffles in walking speed water. This was the main target area.

We spent about 2 1/2 hours hiking and walk and wade fishing and then floated in the afternoon. We had success wading but the float fishing and side drifting was the most productive.

As far as fish numbers, which I'm not very good at counting, lets say it was about as good as you could ever expect on a January day. No fish was landed over 19 inches and no obvious steelhead, just a bunch of healthy looking fish.

Weather: The weather was clear and warm enough that you didn't need a sweater. There was really no breeze to speak of and seemed more like a warm spring day than a day in January.

Flows : 3000 out of Englbright and about 175 out of Deer Creek for a total of 3175 +/-

Color: Blue-Green with visibility of about 5 to 6 feet

Bugs Seen: A handful of BWO's, a handful of Skwala's in the drift

Skwalas: A few Stonefly cases in the rocks below the riffles, not many, a few crawling around the stones or in the bushes. Again just a few.

Flies: The best producer: Brown Superfloss Rubberlegs
The Rest: Natural Troutbeads, Copper John's

Rigging: Deep Indicator Nymphing with heavy shot. We were having enough success with nymphing that we didn't really try a dry rigg with a Skwala Dry much.