12 Hours on 4 Rivers.

I rarely fish on the weekends these days, but Saturday, I made an opening day exception. I met up with Curt (thanks for the fun day) around 7am on the Main Fork of the Tuolumne to start things off.

As usual, the T was beautiful and looked very fishy. Surprisingly, the water was not high and was actually a little lower than I had seen it on previous outings. What didn't change is the tough fishing. I've only pulled a few fish out of this river in the few times I've been there. Nothing happened today. Not even a bump.

Around 10am, we decided to head to Cherry Creek, above the power house. The water was rocking. I wasn't expecting so much flow. Much higher than the last time I was here. Unfortunately, access was difficult and there weren't a whole lot of good spots to fish. Eventually we managed to find a location where some small fish hung out. I caught a handful, all 10 inches or less. Like the last time I was on the river, darker flies seemed to be their favorite flavor. And today, wooly buggers and anything with a marabou tail attracted the most attention. Even if it only got them close enough to see the smaller soft hackle and pound that instead.

After a few hours, we went down to the Middle Fork of the Tuolumne. I've never fished here before. It was crowded for such a small stream. I guess the access was too easy for people to pass up. Initially it was slow going, but as time wore on and I started getting down deep with the flies, it improved.

Because the river was small and the water was cold, I started high sticking some weighted soft hackles with split shot on the leader. This seemed to be the best way to go until the evening when the fish were starting to come to the surface after swung flies. At that point, I put on a size 10 steelhead pattern in the rear with a smaller soft hackle upfront. They were loving the combo. This particular pattern produces well on the Stanislaus, and did well here. It is an ugly little thing with red dubbing and very flashy wings. When swung slowly in the right conditions, it is hard for trout to resist. Again, nothing that large was caught, but for a day that started out slowly, you end up happy with anything.

The day was wrapped up by heading to the Rainbow Pools over on the South Fork of the Tuolumne. There was only an hour or so left of daylight, so one had to be quick. I was happy to see that no one was here and I had the place to myself. Again, with heavily weighted soft hackles, I'd drop them into pools, only to let them rise near the tail outs. This really attracted the fish. They'd follow the flies from 6-7' depths to near the surface. Quite a lot of movement for such cold water. If they didn't take on the rise, a twitch or two on the rod often made them commit.

For someone who likes to swing flies, I did very little of it on this day. Mostly high sticking or very close in swinging while holding almost all of the line out of the water. Slow and deep was the trick. I ended up with a dozen or more fish to hand. Most small, the largest being only 15”. Still, quite an enjoyable day.

Fly #42: Yellow Spider

I've been tying a lot of steelhead flies for the last so many months. It has been great fun, but while on the river last time fishing for trout, I realized that I'm running low on some of my "go to" soft hackle patterns.

In response, I've spent the last few evenings tying various trout flies. I've been concentrating on sparsely dressed spider patterns. These are meant to be fished right in the surface film, or just below.

Yellow Spider (size 12)

Body: Yellow thread, copper wire ribbing, hares ear dubbing
Collar/Hackle: Natural Partridge, stripped on one side

Speyorama

I'll be there tomorrow (Friday), will you?

If you are a two hand guy, or interested in it, this is where you need to be. Go to their website for all the details.

Snakes

Indiana Jones and I have something in common. Our discomfort for snakes. While on the Yuba the other day, I had the fortunate or unfortunate, depending on how you look at it, experience of crossing the path of not one, but two snakes.

Normally, I'm okay with it as long as it is a comfortable distance away. Even when close, I'm not one to run or scream like a girl, however, I rather not meet them on those terms.

The first snake was pretty small, maybe a foot and a half. He was on the path and I saw him when he was a few steps away. He slithered off and after I took a breath, I continued on. I'm not sure what kind he was, but he didn't seem very threatening. (Yes, I know, the small ones can be bad too.)

The second snake freaked me out. It was late afternoon and I heard a rustle when I looked down and saw a pretty big snake, in both length and girth less than 2 feet away from my boots. Since he was at least 4 feet long, probably even longer, I wasn't feeling very comfy. I froze in that spot and waited for him to saunter off.

Innocent enough. The next thing I know, this guy climbed up the tree next to me in no more than a few seconds. That freaked me out a little. A few more seconds and he was about 7 to 10 feet in the air above my head.

I was not feeling good about that! I darted off and watched from a safe distance as he went from branch to branch seeming to defy gravity. It's one thing to have a snake below you, but when they get above you... Yikes.

When I was younger, I would often float the Ozark rivers in a canoe. Going under branches, you had to be thoughtful of the possibility of a snake in your face or falling in your lap. And yes, it did happen once. A snake fell from a low tree into the canoe at my feet after bouncing off my upper body. Perhaps that was the start of my anxiety. Who knows. Whatever the case, I'd rather not see them unless I'm watching Animal Planet.

Speaking of snakes, there is a video you can watch of a rattler swimming across a lake and trying to get in a guys boat. Not cool! I'm not exactly okay with the guy tormenting the thing, but man, I don't know what I would of done in that situation. It is bad enough when I see snakes swimming around me while wading. I don't want one trying to get in my float tube some day.

Trip Report: Yuba

Once again, I'm late with another report. Chalk this one up to a busy schedule or laziness. Your choice.

Last week, I made a pilgrimage to the Yuba. I arrived bright and early and waddled my way upstream of the 20 bridge and crossed river well after the bend. Someone remind me to replace the felt on the bottom of my boots. I was slip sliding all over the place and came close to taking a few spills.

After managing a rather clumsy crossing, I went back downstream and put my line out. I had my two handed rod and a 7ips sinking polyleader on the end. I started off with a black string leech, but wasn't really in the mood to power that sucker. So, I replaced it with two soft hackles.

I stepped and swung through the run starting high in the riffles. Nothing happening. There were fish around as I saw a few rises. At one point, I was stripping in my line as the fly hung down below me. I felt a tug and a bright shiny fish took a 3 foot leap out of the water. He looked to be around 17-20 inches. I can't say for sure, because he managed to remove the hook after a few seconds. While it was a short battle, he put on quite the show.

I spent a good hour or two going through this piece of water. Eventually I had enough and walked upstream a ways. While I was the first one on the water, there were now a few people around. And unfortunately, not only people showed up, but wind did as well.

The weather forecast called for rain and a slight 10mph breeze. WRONG! It didn't rain but for a few minutes late in the day. Furthermore, the wind was whipping! We are talking 30-50mph gusts. It was beyond difficult to cast.

I stayed anyway. Waiting for the gusts to slow for each cast. It wasn't impossible, but it wasn't pleasant either. Despite the rough wind, the fish were there. Around noon or so, the big fish were sipping on the surface. I can only imagine a few of them were in the mid to upper 20's. However, in typical Yuba fashion, those fish are smart and hard to catch.

I tried a lot of flies and although they were eating. Between the driving wind and being unclear on what they were eating, it wasn't happening. I finally worked myself down river and crossed again. There were now around 7 people in this area fishing. I saw one guy catch one, but that was it. At least I wasn't alone in my futility.

While I haven't been skunked, the last few outings have been really slow. Sure, I've gotten some smaller guys, but even they were few and far between. What was even more frustrating about this day on the Yuba were all the fish I could see and actively feeding at that. It just wasn't happening.

I decided to give it a rest above the 20. I went back to the car and decided to do some exploring. I'm not going to tell you where I went, because the area can't handle too much fishing pressure. But, what I will say is that there wasn't a soul in sight. It took a while to drive to, but once there, you could access the water without much walking. A nice change of pace.

One thing really annoyed me though. I was swinging in a piece of water as a guide in a drift boat decided that I must have been in his space. He not only went over my line, but after the drift through the run, he rowed back up two more times. Each time, he again crossed my line and didn't as much as say “sorry” or “do you mind?”. How rude. This sort of stuff really pisses me off. I know who the guide is, he posts on Kienes forum. But, I'm going to keep my trap shut. What an ass. Have some respect. Just because you have a boat and a paying client to satisfy doesn't mean you have a free pass to drift over my line and sit there keeping me from casting again.

Other than those few moments, the day was good. The rain didn't last long and although the fish were not cooperating, I got to explore some new water that I'll visit again.