It was another hot day on the Yuba. Temps were probably near or above 100 degrees. Not so bad as long as I stayed near or in the water. Fishing was pretty good, however, in typical Yuba fashion, nothing mind blowing.
I arrived around 6:30am and was fishing above Hwy 20 not long after. Within the first couple of hours I had caught a couple of trout in the mid teens on soft hackles swung through the current. I spent more time than usual in only a few areas, trying to get some fish to bite on various flies, but it just wasn't turning on. No fish were rising and they must have been hunkered down in deeper holes.
By mid afternoon, I parked myself at the island just above the Hwy 20 bridge. I had 10ft of T-14 sink tip and an intruder style fly with barbell eyes. The setup cast well with my 12'6” spey rod and I was trying to entice the larger fish that were in the pool deep below. For the longest time, I didn't have any bites, but finally had a rather large fish come from the depths to latch onto my fly. It was more exciting than usual, because I saw the whole thing. He was slowly pacing the fly as I was stripping it in, and when it was within 15 feet of me, he roared upwards and engulfed it. I'm not sure how big he was, because he only stayed attached for about 10 seconds. However, he gave up a good fight and broke the surface a few times to frantically rid himself of the hook. My estimation was that around 22 inches. He had no problem attacking that 4 inch intruder.
This trip was last week, and honestly, I'm having a hard time remember the details since I've been on another river between now and then, memories are faded. If I remember correctly, I hooked a few more fish before nightfall. Sometime in the late afternoon, I met up with a friend who caught a few fish of his own too.
Near dark, we almost reached the parking area along the dirt path, luckily, before it was too late, we saw a rather large rattle snake in our way. We paused as he scurried off. Man, I do not like snakes! This guy looked to be 3 or 4 feet long and was almost impossible to see. Glad no one stepped on him.
No comments:
Post a Comment