Yuba

Good thing I had my 12' spey rod with me! This is what I was thinking as I drove home from the Yuba on Thursday. Two of the biggest fish I caught on that day were a whopping 15 feet from where I was standing as I high sticked around some big boulders. A single hander would of been much more comfortable holding above my head.

This was a long one, I was on the water fishing by 6:30am, and fished until 8:30pm. I didn't even take a break to drive to another spot. This was a hard core 14 hours of fishing. The result? Three fish! Luckily, two of those fish were over 20 inches. Not many fish for so many hours, but after talking with at least half a dozen other anglers, I did pretty well. Only one of them caught anything.

The day started out peaceful, no one else was around and I had my favorite run above Hwy 20 to myself. I put in a good two hours covering a few hundred yards. I had what I thought was a bump. But, I'm not even sure that was a fish. Whatever the case, no fish to hand.

Access	Hwy 20
Air Temp	Low 40, High 68
Water Temp/Visibility	~51 F / 4-6 feet
Weather	Partly Cloudy/Sunny
Flow	~1490 cfs
Time in/out	6:30am, 8:30pm
Leaders/Lines	Compact Scandi
	10 foot int poly	All day
	7 & 12 lb FC tippet
Flies	Various sz10 Soft Hackles	3
	Steelhead- big and small	0

As the morning went on, and the sun came up and warmed the air, I noticed people started filing in. First it was a person here or there. And before you knew it, a group of 4 or 5 anglers would come in here, another group there. I didn't expect so many people on a Thursday.

I moved up stream and tried to cross the river. The flows were somewhere in the neighborhood of 1500. I got about half way across, the water was up to my chest, and I started feeling uncomfortable. My feet weren't staying planted, so I decided to turn back and head from where I came. I walked a couple hundred yards upstream to fish a riffle that I've caught a few in over the years.

Fly wrap-up: All three fish were caught on sz 10 soft hackles. One of the fish caught on an adapted bead head prince nymph (longer hackles), the rest were just generic patterns. I tried a bunch ranging from sz16 nymphs, sz12 soft hackles, to larger steelhead flies. The sz10 seemed to get the most interest.

Again, nothing. Pretty much the same story as I covered various spots that have been productive in the past. Around 3pm, I decided to head back to the car to load up on water and food. As I contemplated to whether I wanted to drive downstream, I decided to stay put and just fish below the bridge.

This area was not very conducive to using a spey rod. It was high stick territory without any space to get in the water and wade. You perch yourself on a boulder and flick out 15 feet of line. As I probed around I thought my fly got stuck on an underwater rock I was targeting. I lifted up to try and get my fly for another cast, but I felt resistance. Still, I thought it was the rock until I felt the slightest tug. I pulled harder and realized I had hooked a fish. Initially, I thought it was small, as I didn't feel much fight. But within a few seconds, she started tugging. She was a bit over 20 inches and was pretty strong. It took me a while to get her to my hand. As I admired how bright she was, I noticed sea lice attached to her. This fish had definitely come from the ocean recently.

After letting her go, I decided to move downstream as the other fish here were surely on high alert. I found a nice riffle where I could get in the water and cast out a good 60 feet and let her swing. Nothing happened here. In fact, all of my long distance swinging throughout the day proved to be pointless. Even as the day wore on and the fish started rising, I just didn't get any action.

After I walked downstream, pretty much as far as you can go on this side of the river, I decided to head back and cover previous spots. A few bites here and there. And plenty of fish were now coming to the surface. I just couldn't trick anyone. I didn't give up. Even casting line out until it was so dark I couldn't see the end of my rod tip. I caught one more fish. This twenty something was dark and looked like a trout. Although, it was hard to tell in the low light. Again, I caught her about 15 feet from where I was standing. As I high sticked around rocks that I knew were out there... ...somewhere (couldn't see them this late in the evening).

The weather was beautiful and the river was in good condition. While the fish were not in much of a biting mood, catching three fish (on top of the two 20+ inchers, I caught a small 12" fish early in the day) wasn't a horrible day.