Yuba Report

These long Summer days can really take a toll. Beyond the time I spend on the water, from sun up to sun down, I have a pretty good commute to the water. We are talking almost 20+ hours from when I leave my driveway and when I get back. It can be a real drag.

Last week, I had -what lately is a rare opportunity- to go fishing. The Lower Yuba was my choice. The reports were for high water flow and lousy fishing. A perfect combination! One of the purposes of going was to dial in my rod/line combination for an upcoming North Umpqua trip. Actually catching fish would of been nice, but not my ultimate goal for the day.

The water was unusually cold. Despite the hot 100+ degree air temp, it wasn't bad at all. My setup was a floating line/leader with unweighted flies. Exactly what I'll be using up in Oregon. I'm not used to casting a 15+ foot leader, so this was a good chance to get myself re-acquainted.

Started the morning above the bridge with a size 4 generic steelhead fly. Managed a few hookups that didn't last very long. The fish were in there, but most of the ones that were willing to play, were small. Under 15 inches. I continued stepping downstream to try and find a player. Hopefully someone bigger.

Access	Hwy 20
Air Temp	Low 61, High 100+
Water Temp/Visibility	~49 F / 8-10 feet
Weather	Sunny
Flow	3,500+ cfs
Time in/out	5:30am, 8:30pm
Leaders/Lines	Compact Scandi
	15ft poly floater	Morning
	15ft mono leader	Afternoon on
	8lb Mono tippet
Flies	Various sz 4-8 steelhead	some tugs
	Sz12 red soft hackle	8+

I noticed early on that the rocks were super-slippery today. Even with my studded boots and fancy rubber soles, it was treacherous. Funny enough, the North Umpqua is known to be a very slippery place too. Perhaps someone was trying to get me prepared in more ways than one!

The rocks in this particular run were bowling ball sized and super smooth. Covered in some sort of goop, it wasn't a good idea to step on top of them if you could help it. The water was waist deep when I stumbled and planted my foot on the top of one. Exactly what I didn't want to do. Down I went! I floated only a few feet before I regained my foot hold and stood up. But it was too late. Water had gone over my wader tops and I was now feeling the 50 something degree water filtering down to my legs. Brrrrr! This is the first time ever I've taken a dunk and had water go over my wader top. I guess I should consider myself lucky to have lasted this long.

It was still early morning. And even though the day would soon top 100 degrees, it was now very cold. I pressed on for another hour or so trying to catch a huge fish that was surfacing right in front of my eyes. But, eventually, I had to go back to the car to change. Too much shivering.

After drying up, I went back to the water. But this time below the bridge. No fish. Not even a bite. The water is a little high here and the fish-able spots were a little tough to get to. After an hour or so, I decided to go back above the bridge. I walked much further upstream before getting back to it. This is when the fun began.

At some point, I put on a single size 12 soft hackle. I'll try to post a picture sometime. It is bright red body. I'm not sure I have ever used this fly before. But, it just looked like a good one. Literally on the first cast, I had a small 12 inch fish on. Finally, the first fish of the day. I caught a few of his friends further down the river too. This fly was hot!

The window of time where I was catching fish started to close. I took this opportunity to go back downstream to where I got my dunking. I wanted that big fish that I saw earlier. He must of been in the upper 20's. And he was fat! As I approached that section, two other fly fisherman stepped in below me. Argh! No respect. Typically BS I see around here.

Instead of causing a scene, I chose to go back to the car for water and food. It was now late afternoon/early evening. After filling my stomach, I didn't really want to huck it back upriver, so instead I went down.

I still had that small red soft hackle on and nothing else. No two or three fly rigs today. Keeping it simple. The leader was a hand tied 15 footer. Perfect size for my 12'6" two hander and compact scandi line. It was casting amazingly well. Normally I use poly leaders, but I had an itch to do it the old fashioned way. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it was casting big and small flies alike. I may be tossing my poly's aside for floating work.

I'll skip the details, but the rest of the evening went great. I caught two 20 something inch fish almost on back to back casts. They both fought hard and provided several minutes of entertainment. The one even took a run and peeled off some line. Before it got dark, I ended up getting a dozen hard tugs and a few more fish to hand. What a way to end the day.

What started off as a chance to dial in my rod, ended up being a great day of fishing. Good thing I didn't let those bad fishing reports and high flow complaints scare me off.

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.

Yuba - Above Hwy 20

Spent the last day of 2009 on the Yuba. Parked under the bridge before the sun came up. Put my gear on and walked upstream and around the bend. There is a certain section of water that I always hit here. The run seems to always produce. So, it seemed I should start there.

Access	Above hwy 20 bridge
Air Temp	Low 45, High 56
Water Temp/Visibility	~47 F / 4-6 feet
Weather	Mostly Cloudy
Flow	~710 cfs
Time in/out	7am, 5:15pm
Leaders/Lines	Compact Scandi
	Int. Poly	All day
	7 & 12 lb FC tippet
Producing Flies	Sz6/8 steelhead hair wings	4

The first hour produced only a slight bump. However, after getting a little more than half way through the run, I hooked up with a small 15" female. She took a sz8 steelhead hair wing. Not much of a bend in my rod, but she did go vertical several times.

After putting her back, it was quiet until near the end of the run. I had the line below as more was being pulled from my reel. The fly was bouncing all over the place as I was also moving across the river. Not a very good presentation if you ask most anyone. However, that didn't stop a large fish from taking a grab that almost ripped the rod right out of my hands. The hook up was very short. There was too much slack line to set the hook. However, the fish must of been more than 25 inches. It was pretty unusual.



After finishing off the run with only a bump or two, I crossed and went upstream a ways. Caught another 15-17" female as the fly was dangling below me. Stuck around for a while but didn't feel the mojo. I went back downstream and stepped through with nothing to show for it.

I fished the same one from that morning, but from the other bank. Nothing. Crossed river again and fished my favorite spot to catch a couple more fish around 20".

It was a nice day and I had a chance to see 2009 off doing something I enjoy. Hope to get out again next week, but not sure if it will happen.

Another Yuba Report

Went to the Yuba last week. Arrived much too early, so I took a short snooze in the car before walking to the water somewhere below Hwy 20.

This would mark my longest walk along this river. I'm not sure how many miles I covered throughout the day, but it felt like a million. Saw some new water that had plenty of salmon, a few half pounders, and some large trout. I did manage to catch a couple smaller bright fish in the morning that took a size 8 hair wing steelhead fly.

That was about it. It was quiet almost the entire day after the productive morning. Only a few short lived hookups here and there. Despite seeing a few bright fish leap 3 or 4 feet out of the water, it was non eventful. Still, you can't beat a day on the water.

Next up? The American.

Yuba Report

At the last minute, I was able to get away from the daily grind and get a day of fishing in. Based on decent reports, I decided to go to the Yuba.

This was the first time I've been on this river while the upriver of Hwy 20 portion was closed. Thanks to previous scoutings, I've found some excellent runs to fish in. This day was no exception.

I started the morning before it was light out. I waited in my car until the sun came up to avoid twisting or falling down a hill. Eventually I made it to my destination and started fishing. Even though I had the spey rod, I only needed roughly 15 feet of line. I was fishing a slow section off the main current near the bank. Looked fishy enough, but nobody wanted to play. Since I don't believe in sitting around and pounding one spot, I moved on.

Eventually I came to a stretch that I had found on a previous trip. With the low water (around 850 cfs), it was even more attractive looking. With my three fly setup, I put on a small size 14 soft hackle up front, a winged wet size 12 as the middle dropper, and the anchor was a size 8 steelhead fly of the skunk variety. Stepped through the first 20 yards of this run with nothing to show for it. As the current slowed, I started getting bumps and grabs.

Eventually I caught and landed a nice bright 20 inch fish. She took the skunk fly at the very beginning of the swing. I don't remember feeling the grab, but my spidey sense told me that someone was home. So, I set the hook and there she was.

That was the only fish I pulled out of that run this morning. Several other bumps and grabs, but nothing more. I decided to cross stream, which would of been impossible at higher flows and fished a sweet looking spot that produced a bunch of grabs. Unfortunately, I was low on drinking water and a headache was developing. I reluctantly left the fishiest looking spot and probably the best time of day to try and avoid a full-blown migraine.

The long 1/2 hour walk back to the car wasn't fun. However, upon getting back, I was surprised to see it was already noon! Time flew. I decided not to drive anywhere else, but simply walk upriver to another spot that had been productive on a previous trip. On the way there, I saw a group of 15-20 salmon spawning. I sat and watched them for about half an hour. Some of these fish were very good size. It was fun to see the big males chase off the smaller fish. It was a constant game of cat and mouse. What a hard life these guys have!

In my opinion, fishing here would of been a no-no, even if you weren't targeting the salmon. I decided to walk downriver. Eventually the water got fast enough that the salmon were no longer doing their business. I put my line in and started swinging. Nothing.

Eventually I went far enough downstream to get back where I started in the morning. I caught another fish or two in that same run. I stayed until about an hour before nightfall, and decided I'd get closer to my car prior to dark. I didn't want to get stranded out there without a flashlight. I've been through that before, and it wasn't something I wanted to repeat.

One last stop at a run that I had been to before. It is short, but always looked productive. I got a bunch of grabs and hookups that didn't last too long. The fish were being aggressive but non committal. Then, I felt this slight tug and slowly raised my rod to find a fish was on. This was a good fight, it took me a while to bring him in. He wanted to make a few runs and did pull a little line out. But, generally, I don't screw around and try to bring these guys in quick so that they aren't exhausted. This bright female was around 23 inches. A nice way to end the day!

Trip Report: Yuba

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.

Trip Report: Yuba

For this first time in I don't know how long, I went fishing on a Sunday. I normally avoid the weekends due to crowds. However, considering my workload, I didn't have a choice.

Surprisingly enough, my trip to the Yuba, above and below the 20 bridge, was relatively uncrowded. I did see other fisherman, but had no problem finding empty spots.

I'm going to wrap up this report quickly as I need to get back to work. The day was warm and the wind was acceptable for a change. I ended up catching 3 fish. None of them were over 15 inches. One was caught in deep water while high sticking my spey rod (yeah, I know, not the best use of a spey rod) around some rocks, right near the shore. If I remember correctly, he took a size 12 bead head prince nymph. About an hour later, I caught a 15 inch fiesty trout on the swing in some heavy riffles. This guy was caught on a size 10 partridge and orange soft hackle. The last fish was caught late in the evening on a small generic steelhead fly.

Started the day off with a 420 grain skagit line and 8feet of T-10 sink tip. I worked a run above the hwy 20 bridge pretty thoroughly for nothing. At some point, around noon, I switched to a 420 grain scandi line with a 15 foot floating leader and tried skating some flies. No takers.

I kept the scandi line on and switched to a 10 ft 3.6ips polyleader. This was kept on for almost the rest of the day. This is what I had on while catching those three fish. Late in the day I moved to a clear 10ft 1.5ips polyleader. Nothing with that one.

It was a good time. Especially appreciated because I'm not able to get out much to the river lately. Fingers are crossed for another opportunity soon.

Flow around 2,000
Water temp approximately 50 degrees.

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.

Report: Yuba

The Yuba is fast becoming one of my favorite rivers. Not so much for the amount of fish caught, because frankly I can catch many more elsewhere. It is probably for the challenge. I think the fish in this river are smart. That, or I just get a case of the stupids every time I get on this water. Just yesterday, I decided to push my luck once again and give her a try.

The Yuba is farther away from me than I'd like it to be. It takes me almost three hours to get there. That means waking up at 3AM if I want to get there by sunup. As you can imagine, I did exactly that. In fact, I was there at least a half hour before there was any light whatsoever.

I parked under the 20 bridge and headed upstream. No one was around. I had the river to myself for at least an hour. I stepped and swung through the same run a couple of times trying different flies on each pass. I've caught fish here before, so I figured I'd give it another shot. This time, I crossed the river to get a different look at it.


Within the first ten to fifteen minutes, I had a bite. After some fighting, I pulled in and landed a 20 or so inch nice looking rainbow. Possibly a steelhead that has been to sea. He had some brightness to him. Hard to say for sure because I didn't get him out of the water. I cradled him under his belly and took the hook out. He had plenty of fight left and he swam away quickly. He gave me the finger on the way out too. My face was soaked from his splash.

This guy was caught on a 5 inch long egg sucking bunny leech with a stinger hook. I tied it just the other day on a whim. It was fished on a 7.6ips sinking poly leader in the heart of a run near the end of a swing. What a day this was going to be! Or so I thought.


The Yuba has a way of taking it away from you. That was the last activity I'd have for several hours. A guide and his drift boat came by to unload his clients. I was down at the end of the run about to go back to the top to start over. But alas, they had stepped in. Some of you fly fisherman, and you know who you are, don't move. Sit and cast till your arm falls off. Since I didn't feel like waiting around, I went upstream for greener pastures.


Several hours went by and I fished various runs pretty thoroughly. Various flies were tied on to no affect. Smaller soft hackles, winged wets, hair and feather wing steelhead flies, you name it. Stupid me, I put that egg sucking leech on my baseball cap to dry and when I bent over at one point, it flopped into the water. I didn't have another. What I did have were some other marabou flies I have recently tied. They were tried too.

As I was about to leave a run, the shooting head was being brought back in. When it got within 15 feet of me, I was startled to see a good size salmon well over 30 inches chasing my fly. Keep in mind I wasn't trying to catch him. I had no idea he was even there until this moment. At the last second he turned and darted away. My heart jumped just seeing him. Never mind if he took.

After witnessing that guy, I realized a few more salmon were in this run. They were moldy looking and had to be near the end. I hope they had the chance to do their business and make lots of babies.

Eventually I walked upstream a ways as the crowds started rolling in. For a Tuesday, I was surprised to see so many people. The primo spots were being sucked up by the squatters, and I needed to find empty water where I could step and swing down the runs.

It was now early afternoon and fish were starting to rise. Skwalas were landing on my arms and face driving me nuts. However, I don't think the fish were keyed in on them. They looked to be chasing smaller bugs on the surface. I tried everything in the book to catch these guys and couldn't do it. I saw small and large fish rising. I also saw some 24+ inch rainbows cruising the slower water. They all ignored my offerings. Really smart, or I went really dumb. Take your pick.

Nearing the end of the day, I went back downriver and tried some spots from earlier. I caught some smaller fish with soft hackles. I witnessed a large, perhaps close to 30” rainbow leaping out of the water a good three feet. He would leap once, twice, three times in as many seconds. It was crazy. He was no more than 10 feet away in shallow riffly water. I worked hard to get him, but it just wasn't meant to be.

I love the Yuba. Even though it wasn't an impressive day as far as catching fish. It was another great experience on a very warm sunny day.

Report: Yuba River

I had an opportunity to sneak out for a day of fishing, so I decided to give the Yuba river another swing. After December 1st, the water above Highway 20 is open again, so I figured this would be my target.

I arrived a little late (the morning fog slowed my driving time.) I was finally fishing around 8:30am or so. I had walked to a point upriver where I had never been. Saw some riffles well past a rather long stretch of still water that went for many hundreds of yards. Since a cliff blocked my access on river left, I needed to cross. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a shallow enough spot, so I walked back downstream to the last decent looking fishy area.

Early morning; looking downriver.

I was swinging various wet flies. I had a two fly rig with a smallish winged wet in front and a soft hackle in back. The flies were rotated every so often and mixed in with some hair wing steelhead flies as well. As mentioned in another post, I've been tying a bunch of hair and feather wing flies. My most recent builds even included my first official entry (to be classified as a true spey fly, it must meet a few requirements that I hadn't yet done) into a spey fly. I'll post pictures of those soon.

By noon, I had gotten a few tugs, but nothing more. It was rather quiet. Typical Yuba fishing. The only thing I was getting, was a plethora of casting problems. I'm not sure what happened, but I regressed a little and my casting was sloppy and I had a hard time getting the distance normally accessible with my two handed rod.

I changed setups several times trying to guess where the fish were. Started with a 3.9 ips sinking poly leader, then went to a furled neutral leader, then finally settled on a intermediate sinking poly. I threw on a little split shot to sink my unweighted flies a little lower. This is something I had never done before while swinging. It worked out pretty well.

Around 2pm, I was downriver from where I started, but still well upstream of the 20 bridge. A size 10 bead head soft hackle in the rear and a size 14 winged wet upfront made up my rig. That bead head was giving me some depth, where I assumed the fish must be. My current target was the tail end of a small rapid section, and more specifically, the seam from fast water to slow. On one of my casts, when the swing crossed that seam, wham! The jolt was so sudden, it almost pulled the rod from my hand.

As quick as it came, it was over. The fish released himself and I never saw as much as a flash. I imagine he was pretty good in size. He hit me really hard. This is why I love swinging flies! Hard hits that can scare the crap out of you.

About ½ hour later I started swinging just below the surface while a hatch was going off. I caught and landed a few smaller fish in the 12-15 inch range. Towards 3:30pm I was swinging one of my new spey flies (pictures below), it was accompanied by a size 10 soft hackle. In the heart of the swing, I felt another huge jolt.

Immediately, the line started ripping across the current. The fish was probably 70 feet away from me and had covered at least that distance cross river in the blink of an eye. He stopped in an eddy and I gave a few cranks on the reel. That woke him up and he zinged down river and it stripped more line off. I had a player this time.

About 10 minutes later, I muscled a 24-26 inch beautiful missile shaped rainbow to my hand. He was hooked squarely in the side of the mouth. This is the one of the biggest fish I've ever caught on a fly rod. And he gave a real good fight. In fact, this was one of those time I actually needed to use two hands to keep him under control. even noticed that someone had stopped at the road above me and got out of their car to watch the battle. Luckily for them and more importantly for myself, I didn't disappoint and lose him.

The fish was lifted out of the water very gently and I quickly removed the hook. After putting him up against my rod for a measurement. He was lowered back in and I let him sit behind my leg for a few minutes while he was cradled with my left hand.

I was a little concerned because he showed no sign of trying to get away from me. I moved him a little bit out into the current to try to get some oxygen to him. But, I didn't want to lose my grip and have him belly up. After a few more moments he gracefully swam out of my hand and sought refuge in a stream depression about two feet below me. He stayed there for another few minutes before swimming off like nothing ever happened.

While there was still another 45 or so minutes of fishing to come, that would be my last catch of the day.

Trip Report: Yuba

If you recall, I was planning to fish the American river on Friday. That was until I remembered that the Yuba above the 20 would be closed in a few days. So, my plans were altered at the last minute.

Arriving at 7am, I geared up and quickly fished the run just below the first bit of churning water, not far upstream from the bridge. Started out with a 3 fly assortment of various soft hackles, anchored by a colorful attractor soft hackle. The rig was held on by an intermediate sinking leader. This setup was the basis for my morning. The three flies were swapped in various combinations throughout.

There was barely any above the water activity, although a few fish did break the surface here and there. It didn't take long before moving upstream seemed like a good idea. If I remember, correctly I went to the first left hand bend and fished upstream of that and back to the bend. Again, nothing.

Eventually, I made my way upstream a ways along the left bank (looking upstream) and found a place to cross river. I hadn't tried to go this far last time I was here and didn't realize there was a somewhat easy place to cross. The river was wide and only waist/chest deep. Not much work, just a slow process on the slippery rocks. I caught a few smaller fish in this area.

Once across I moved upstream to the slow right hand bend, where there the river divides in 3 sections. This was my starting off point for a step-and-swing down river. Again, a few more fish were caught. Nothing to write home about. Maybe 12 inches max.

At one point, I was standing in the river and happened to look down at the right moment to see a 24-32 inch rainbow about 7 feet away from me. He was just hanging out, nibbling on nymphs as they floated down to him in about 4 feet of water. Quickly pulling in some line, I made a few casts to him before he disappeared. So, obviously the big fish are in there. I just wasn't able to nab this one.

While swinging/stepping down river I was met by a guy in a kayak from Fish and Game. We talked for a moment and then he continued down river. Nothing much for him to see here, that's for sure.

The day was getting hot. The high was supposed to be over 100, and I believe it. There were no other fisherman on the river, too smart to stand in the triple digits I suppose. Because of the heat, I eventually dumped the three fly rig and put on a sinking tip with various heavy (summer) steelhead flies. This lasted until the late afternoon and the fish started coming to the surface again.

I've got a lot to do this weekend, so I won't pour over every place I fished. Let's just say that pretty much the whole river was covered from where I saw that big fish down to the bridge. In one area, while perched on a rock, I could look out and see more than a dozen trout, all over 15 inches. The largest ones looked to be pushing 30. It was a crazy scene. They were deep down and it wasn't easy to access them with a fly rod. Although I tried for a while, I just couldn't get to them with the limited casting space and precarious position I had to get into. They were not all trout. Some of them were obscured by the surface ripples and made it hard to know for sure. Other than being huge, I'm still not positive what they were.

All in all, it was a sweltering day with a few decent sized fish. Overall, it was slow, as you'd expect for such a warm day. Next week, I'm hoping to take a two day trip to Northern California. Perhaps the Trinity.

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.