Lower Yuba Weekend

Spent Saturday and Sunday on the Lower Yuba. Fishing was good. Not as crowded with boats as last weekend but plenty of waders. Flows are have been Stable a few CFS under 2000 but Deer Creek is presently rising with the current rain. I can't imagine that the flows will come up to much or Deer Creek will totally blow out. The river was scheduled to drop to 2200cfs last monday and stay stable at that flow but the river dropped again on Friday down to 1900cfs.

Flows are perfect at 1900cfs. Plenty of water for wader fishermen to get at and plenty of water for drift boats to fish. Everybody is happy and not fishing the same water which I think helps everyone.

The fishing was good. We boated 15-20 fish with a few more missed or lost on big runs. both days most of our fish hovered between 15-18". All were chubby and well fed despite rumors of scoured insect life. I will say the fish were really podded up though we caught multiple fish in a few spots and there was some serious dry spells through out the day.

When we found fish they seemed to eat pretty readily based on what we saw flying around. Bug wise there were a few caddis, a few PMD's, a few skwalas, a few BWO...getting the drift a few of a lot of stuff. Most of our fish came on Yuba pupa's, olive birds nest, Jimmy Leggs, and beads. We did pull over a few times and fish skwala dries and rose and landed some nice fish, but dry fly fishing was far from what I would call productive. Also saw a few trout smack natural skwalas. I did not see any fish stacked up on flats eating the Mayflies though which I thought was weird as I have seen fish up and eating when there are fewer bugs. Saw a few bankies hooked up and most bank anglers were doing pretty well fishing dry flies from what I heard talking to a few. As always the guys that got of the beaten path seemed to be doing better.

Over all I think the fish are still getting back on track from the big flow drops over the last 14 days. 3000-1900cfs changes things up. This week will be interesting as we'll have to see what this rain does.