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.