Trip Report: 14 Hours on the Yuba

Earlier this week, I had another opportunity to slip away for a 14-hour day of fishing. I figured this was as good of a time as any to try a new river, and this week the decision was to go to the Yuba, upstream of the Highway 20 bridge.

Upon arriving at 7am, there was only one car in the parking area. This guy wasn't fishing, but panning for gold. Not something I see very often and I just had to ask whether he actually ever finds anything. As it turns out, he pulls quite a bit of gold out. He spends several days there every month. I had no idea that people still did this. Kind of cool.

I went upstream of the highway 20 bridge and dipped my line in wherever it looked good. The river is pretty wide, approximately 100 feet and up. And I have a feeling it was just filled with trout. In the slower water, I could see them out there close to shore. And if you can see them that easily, they must be everywhere. Despite the numbers, they weren't the easiest fish to catch. A little on the picky side.

Starting off with various size 10 soft hackles on an intermediate sink tip, I finally found one that the fish were interested in. It was a golden dubbing with natural partridge hackle. A bit of red dubbing was mixed in. After a few grabs, I finally hooked a fish completely by accident. I was making an attempt to cross the river, while the line was just dangling below me. The fly was approximately 80 feet downstream and a 15 inch trout latched on when I wasn't paying attention. At first I thought I hooked a rock, but after a few good pulls, I realized a fish was on. I was certainly happy to catch something, but it was pretty bad timing. I was chest deep in some pretty swift water. My feet were barely getting traction on the gravel below me as is. Now with a fish on, I was now trying to deal with it and the current which was trying to push me down river into a really deep section. After turning around and heading back from where I started, I got into waist deep water where I could get good footing. I could now scoop up the rainbow with my hand.

I tried a second time to cross, but it was just too difficult. I didn't want to push my luck, so after getting 3/4 the way across, I turned back and headed upstream. I actually couldn't go very far because of the terrain and the fact I was trying to avoid getting on private property. After an hour or so of casting, I went back downstream. I got out in the river and tried to cross again. Izig zagged as the current pushed me down river trying to find a shallow enough section to cross. I covered about 300-500 yards doing this. A crossing just wasn't going to happen today.

I went back to the car around 1pm and tried the Hammond Grove park. After a while of casting, I didn't get a bite. There were certainly fish in here, but the water was much more attractive at Highway 20. After an hour or two, I decided to go back.

As the day wore on and the light angle changed, I could see into the water better and there were hundreds of fish in this slow section. I tried everything from dries to wooly buggers to big marabou streamers. Fish were following, but I just couldn't get anything to bite. I went through several nymphs of various colors and sizes and still had nothing to show for it. Enough is enough, I went back to my soft hackle box and started trying out various patterns.

I switched to a floating tip since fish were beginning to rise. Time to try a gold ribbed hare's ear soft hackle. It was a size 12 and after an 80 foot spey cast to the opposite bank where a good sized fish was jumping underneath an overhanging tree, I landed an 18 inch rainbow. He gave a good fight and it was a challenge bringing in that much line. Like the many other fish I saw, they were hanging out in 5 or 6 feet of water. It was a border between the shallows and deep.

Before the day was over, I landed one last fish. He couldn't of been more than 15 inches, but gave a decent fight. He was caught on another soft hackle that was a size 10 with a rust colored thread body and a glass bead.

After more than 14 hours of fishing, I landed three fish and had numerous bites. It was a good first trip to the Yuba. I'll be back.

On a side note, the air was filled with smoke from one of the California wild fires. The sun never really came out fully because of this. I consider myself to be in pretty good shape, even so, I felt a little fatigued by the end of the day from the smoke. Just a word of caution.

Cheap Tools

I put in another hour or two of tying steelhead patterns. Managing the large hackles and marabou takes some getting used to. The tangling of these long feathers can get annoying. I discovered a nice little device to control the problem. An old toothbrush. I'm sure this is something a lot of people have been using for their tying. But for some reason, it just never occurred to me.

Despite the fact that my wife now makes fun of me for brushing my flies, it is a great tool that I'll continue to use. It splits up the hackles and spreads everything out nicely.

Fly of the Week #21

I've finally found a little tying time and decided to change things up. In my opinion, steelhead and various spey style flies can be some of the nicest looking ones around. I've always wanted to make them, but have never given it a shot. Not until now.

("Popsicle" - Click for larger image)

This is one of my first attempts. I know, there is plenty of room for improvement! I plan to keep working on them when I get more opportunities. Also, since I'm just messing around right now, these are being tied on the cheapest hooks I can find. When I get better, I'll invest in some nice spey hooks.

("Popsicle" - Click for larger image)

This fly is modeled after the Popsicle. Orange marabou in back, red in the center, and purple up front. Within that mix is just a touch of flashabou. Upfront you'll see some guinea hackle. I've been tying a few other patterns and more will be posted here soon!

Trip Report: American River

My work is slowly returning back to normal. I'm hoping to get more opportunities to get on the water in the next couple of weeks. As a matter of a fact, just yesterday, I skipped out for a long day on the American in Sacramento.

The goal was to try and catch some Shad. Unfortunately, they didn't get the memo. Mother nature must of also missed it and supplied me with a day of insanely bad conditions.

I arrived at Elmanto around 6:30am, quickly geared up and hit river. I immediately noticed that the water was much higher than it was last time I was out a few months ago. Later in the day, a regular verified my suspicion and let me know that they raised the water level over night. Perfect timing! I'm sure the sudden rise didn't make the fish any more eager to bite. Not to mention the incredible amount of debris floating down the river. It was almost like an obstacle course. I spent more time cleaning the hook on my flies than anything else. Not to mention the amount of caught branches, leaves, and huge logs.

The day started off windy and only got worse as it went. I'm not sure how many MPH it was gusting, but I would have a feeling it went past 40 or 50 mph part of the day. It was insane. No wonder I was the only one fly fishing in the area.

After feeling a little uncomfortable with the water level and wind, I went down river past the clay banks. On my way to that sharp left turn, I fished the holes and shallow runs, and actually everything in between. I was rigged up with a variety of bright flashy flies and a few sink tip lines. The strong wind made it difficult to cast very far. It was hard to really cover much of the river. Lucky for me, I had my switch rod and because I wasn't casting over head, it made the wind a little more manageable.

As time went on, my goal became less fishing oriented and more about finding a location that was a little less breezy. That never really happened, so I made the most of the day and pushed on. Around 1pm, I decided to go back to the car and get some food. As I entered the parking lot, I immediately noticed that the guy next to me had his car broken into. I'm told this happens a lot here, I'm just lucky that it wasn't mine that got hit. That was close enough, I decided to go elsewhere.

I arrive at Upper Sunrise a few minutes later and paid my $5 access fee. The wind was even crazier here and because the water was so high, I could barely get my fly out into the current. What a rough day. Next was a drive down to both Watt and Howe to look. I've never been to this area and was curious what I was missing. It didn't look terribly inviting, so I once again drove back to where I started in the morning.

After parking in what seemed to be a safer place, I headed back to the river and tried again. I did actually see a trout that was at least 30 inches. Probably more. He was about 12 feet down, right along the clay banks. I put my line in and managed to get my fly down far enough, but he didn't bite. He did check it out and the other 3 flies I tried. However, that was it.

Now getting close to 7pm, the wind was just getting even crazier. It was easily pushing past 50 mph. I mean, I could barely stand. It wasn't worth the effort anymore. Even if fish were finally starting to break the surface for food. I put in a good 12 hours of fishing and that was enough.

Skunked!

Rod and line testing results

It was nice to get on the water again, even if it was only for a couple of hours. The nearby lake is stocked full of trout, but the real reason for visiting was to try out the switch rod and AFS spey line.

The RIO AFS Outbound has a 37' head with the real loading at the back of the section. The long taper to the front is a lengthy 29'. At the point where the running line starts, the line turns from green to black. A nice easy way to see where the loading point is for the line when spey casting.

The combination worked well. Even if I think the rod could of used a slightly heavier line. This particular AFS was 300 grains. I think something closer to 400 would of done the trick. However, with this weight, I could easily 1-hand overhead cast without any fatigue. This is perfect. One could continue to overhead when they have the room, or zip out line in a spey cast when tight conditions persist or take advantage of what makes this type of casting so special. Less time false casting, and more time fishing.

I was able to easily overhead with 10-20 feet of line out of the rod, the whole head, or anywhere in between. No problem. Shooting line was a breeze and if the head was nearly or completely out of the rod, line would rocket off the tip. The only thing to be aware of, is that you have to slow down a little bit if you are used to 8 or 9 foot rods. This almost 11 footer needs a little extra time.

Spey casting was easy too. It took me a little playing around to figure out where to place my D-loop anchor. However, after experimentation, I could spey cast 70 feet without much difficulty. After a little more time with this combination, I'm sure I could hit 100 feet without problem. The head also allows me to spey short distances too. Something I was a little curious about because of the long taper this line has. In fact, with that 10' RIO versileader on the front, I could cast just the leader and a short bit of line no problem.

Next week will be a trip to the American for some Shad fishing. Hopefully I'll catch some fish and can report on how it performed in that area.

Finally, a morning on the water

Work has been really busy. I haven't had a chance to go fishing in quite a while. Tomorrow morning, I'll have an opportunity to sneak out for a few hours to a nearby lake.

The real reason to go is not even to catch fish (although that would be nice), but to finally try out that switch rod with the proper line on it. A fresh AFS Outbound and some RIO 10' versileaders await. I'll report back on how the rod/line combination performed.

If everything checks out okay, I'll be slipping away next week for some Shad on the American.