Update and Available Dates

Fall Fishing is on its way. I spent the last weekend on the lower yuba and put the boat over two large pods of salmon just above the diversion dam. The pods numbered in the 30-40 range and with the clear water it was really cool. The dropping of the flows starting Aug 22 and ending Sept 1 at around 800cfs I am thinking is pushing any salmon in the lower river up and over the diversion dam and on up the river. These were the first pods I have seen but I am sure not the only moving up the river. We fished through the pods and hooked up and landed two nice half pound steelhead that jumped all over the place and went on multiple runs.

Fishing on the Lower Yuba remains good with good numbers of hot rainbows in the 12-14” range and a few nice fish in the 16-20” range.

Lower Feather River is going to get going over the next week or two and as both steelhead and salmon fill in through the river fishing will get good.

Should see a good year on the lower sac as salmon fishing for the conventional anglers has been GOOD. Guide boats and recreational boats are getting multiple fish everyday so there are good numbers of fish moving up the river. Striper fishing remains productive and should last through September.

I still have some prime fall dates available if anyone is interested as well as discounted date this weekend.

I am offering this sunday or monday Sept 4th and 5th at a discounted rate. $295 for a full day guided trip on the Lower Sac, Lower Yuba, Lower Feather, NF feather, or Lower Sac for stripers.

Sept. (these are prime egg bite days on the L. Yuba) 18 Oct 1, 2,

Prime L. Sac steelhead/trout and Feather River steelhead Oct. 16, 29, 30, Nov 12, 13

Winter Trout and steelhead on the Lower Yuba, Butte Creek Steelhead, and winter trout and steelhead on the Lower Sac. Dec 3, 4, 10, 11, 16-23, 27-30.

*pic is from Yuba on Sunday.

Also check out a recent post I did for the http://truchacabra.wordpress.com/ this is a buddy of mines blog out in New Mexico. He owns a nice shop in Santa Fe called the Reel Life.

Lower Yuba Flow Drop and Nor Cal Update

The lower Yuba will began its Fall flow drop on Monday August 22. It will drop 200cfs everyday until September 1st when it will have dropped to around 800cfs. Also above the Hwy 20 bridge closes to all fishing August 31. Just a reminder...

Also check out my Nor Cal Report on the Idylwilde Blog.
http://idylwilde.com/wordpress/2011/08/dispatch-for-idylwilde-city-norcal-checks-in/

Lower Yuba River

Lower Yuba -
Fishing has been fair. Flows dropped from 3300cfs to 2800cfs on thurs/Fri so fishing took a bit of a hit. The drop was not a gradual drop but turn of the spigget fast drop so I think the fish got a little thrown off. Still managed 20+ fish each day I was out there but most were in the 10-14" range and the nice 15-18" fish seemed to be missing in the mix. Not that there was a ton of fish that size prior but we were getting a few. The biggest fish we got was a 20" fish on Monday.

Status of fish still seems to be the same. The river is full of 8-12" FAT fish. Good to see but that seems to be the majority of what I am catching. Usually these don't get to hold in the prime water and are forced to spots of the river that I usually don't fish. I am catching these fish in prime trout water now which leads me to start to think that the bigger fish may have been pushed down river with all the high water. Basically I am trying to hypothesis why I ( and all the others I am talking to) am catching 75% - 95% 10-12" fish. Furthermore, the bigger fish that I am catching are skinny, not total snakes but not traditional fat yuba fish. So who knows...I am curious to see what is going to happen as more and more salmon move into the river and start dropping eggs. Hopefully this will pull some fish back up into the upper river and fatten up some of the skinny fish that are still around. If not the smaller fish are gonna big really quick with all those eggs.

Flies wise i have been fishing rubber leggs, red copper johns, natural birds nests, yuba pupa's, and Morrish Hopper.

Fall Fishing is right around the corner and I still have some great dates available if anyone is interested.
Sept: 18, 25
Oct. 1, 2, 16, 29, 30