Tips for Success on the Lower Yuba River

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The angling challenges of the lower Yuba are also the beauty of this river. They make you a better fly fisher.

The lower Yuba River, near Marysville, is a trout and steelhead fishery easily accessible for those who live near Sacramento or in the Bay Area. It’s a cold tailwater that flows out of Englebright Reservoir, so it’s fishable even in the heat of a lowland valley summer. The lower Yuba has lots of public access for people to drift and wade fish the river, but with all of the accessibility and the resulting pressure from anglers, the lower Yuba trout can be finicky at times. It’s is a place where one day you can do really well and then go out the next day with the same conditions and struggle.

And so it goes. Over time, you think that you have the lower Yuba figured out and that you know what you are doing, and then the river humbles you and makes you think you know nothing at all. I have had the pleasure of guiding the lower Yuba River for 20 years, and I have a love/hate relationship it. After hundreds of days on this river, though, I have come to realize that the angling challenges of the lower Yuba are also the beauty of this river. They make you a better fly fisher.

Over the years, I have learned lots of tricks to increase my success rate at catching these wild rainbow trout and steelhead. Some of the tricks are knowing when to be there, and others are knowing what flies to fish in different situations.

Every Technique Works

One of the coolest things about the lower Yuba is that all the trout fly-fishing techniques work. The lower Yuba is not one of those places where you have to nymph to catch its fish. Nymphing the lower Yuba is really effective, and it brings a lot of fish to the net, but so do other techniques. If you like to fish dry flies, the lower Yuba is the place for you. It is hands down the best dry-fly valley fishery in Northern California. It is consistent — you can cast dries most days throughout the year. The key, as in most dry-fly fishing, is being there when the hatches are coming off. In the winter and spring, be there midday, when the weather is the warmest. In the summer and fall, be there in the evening, when the temperatures are cooling off.

Other techniques work really well, too. Fishing streamers on small shooting heads and targeting the deep pools can result in fun, aggressive hookups. Or if you like to swing flies, you can swing leeches or soft-hackle patterns in the riffles and along the drop-offs, looking for aggressive fish willing to eat a swung fly.

You may see a lot of people nymphing, just because of its effectiveness, but don’t allow that to discourage you from going out there and fishing your passion. Be true to yourself and go have fun. Whether you like to swing flies, cast dries, lob indicator rigs, or high-stick pocket water, you will find that your method of choice will catch fish on the lower Yuba.

Fish Shallow and Deep

The reason why all fly-fishing techniques work on the lower Yuba is largely due to the fact that fish can be found in all the different kinds of water. You will find fish in shallow riffles, along drop-offs, in deep holes, and in slow tailouts. There will be higher concentrations of fish in the riffles and along drop-offs, but don’t forget about the tailouts. Just make sure to match your technique with the kind of water that you are fishing. In a slow, shallow tailout, the indicator on your indicator rig is going to scare the fish. In fast, turbulent water, the fish don’t have very long to see a dry fly.

I can honestly say after 20 years of guiding on the lower Yuba, my clients have caught just as many fish in two feet of water as they have in a deep drop-off or pool.

The next time you fish the Yuba, make sure to give the shallow water just as much effort as the juicy run that looks like it holds hundreds of fish.

Cover Water

One of the keys to being successful on the lower Yuba is covering lots of water. Compared with the great trout fisheries in the West, the trout population is not dense, with approximately five hundred trout per mile. A prolific trout fishery such as the lower Sacramento near Redding has seven times that. Waters such as the Green River in Utah and the San Juan in New Mexico have six-thousand-plus trout per mile.

When I was young and trying to learn how to guide on the river, an older veteran guide gave me the best tip I have learned about the lower Yuba: “Try to catch one fish in every spot. If you can do that, then by the end of the day, your clients will have a great day on the river.” If you want to do really well on the lower Yuba, try to approach the river with this mentality. Yes, there are spots where you will catch more than one fish, but just approach the river trying to catch one fish per spot. Then keep covering water to increase your chances.

Dry-Fly Tricks

On the lower Yuba, you are going to have lots of chances to cast dry flies to rising trout. As I mentioned, you can count on fly fishing this river with dries throughout the entire year. Depending on the season, the hatch may last four to five hours, or it might be only an hour. Obviously, you have to be on the river when the bugs are hatching. The lower Yuba is not like the Rockies, where you can go out and cast dry flies blindly and hope to do well. You have to be there when the bugs are coming off.

One of the best lower Yuba dry-fly tricks that I can teach you is always to make a downstream presentation when fishing to rising fish. The lower Yuba trout get fished over a lot and have become very smart and wary. If you try to cast upstream, they will see your fly line and leader before your fly, and they will not eat. If you want to be really successful, your fly must float down to the fish. Stage yourself upriver, then make a short cast above the fish. After your fly falls to the water, start shaking out slack from your rod to allow the fly to float down drag free. Try to get in the best position possible and then make a good cast. Setting up the best angle to get your fly to float right to the fish first will result in more fish eating your dry. It sometimes helps to make the cast a little long, then pull your fly into the fish’s lane.

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Don’t let adverse conditions keep you home. Instead, go out there and adapt to the conditions. You may end up having a very successful day.

Seasonal Tricks and Tips

Because you can fish the river year-round, how you go about it should reflect the conditions of the season and how trout respond to them. In the winter, there is going to be lots of rain — or at least there is in a normal year. That means the river is going to be fluctuating in flows and water clarity. In the winter, try to fish the river when it’s below 2,500 cubic feet per second with two feet of water clarity. If it has been raining recently, but the flows are dropping and the water clarity is starting to clear, you can have some awesome fishing on the lower Yuba. In these conditions, the fish can’t see as well, and their lack of vision makes them more aggressive. Try indicator nymphing with bright egg patterns and San Juan Worms. If you are a streamer angler, this is also a great time to fish a small shooting head with a big black streamer. In the winter, don’t let adverse conditions keep you home. Instead, go out there and adapt to the conditions to catch a whole bunch of fish.

Spring on the lower Yuba is one of the special times of the year for fishing dry flies. As soon as the weather starts to warm up, prolific hatches of Skwalas, March Browns, Pale Morning Duns, and caddisflies begin. The Skwalas begin showing first, in February, and their topwater presence runs through March. When the Skwalas hatch is the busiest time of the year on the lower Yuba. The river is going to be extremely crowded as people flock there to cast dries to rising fish. If you decide to join the masses, make sure that your Skwala imitation floats low in the surface film. When you see real Skwalas floating down the river, they are barely out of the water, and your Skwala dry fly has to ride low in the water, too, if you want to be successful.

Likewise, when fishing the mayfly hatches of the spring, fish flies that are tied sparse, with slim profiles. Big, bushy mayfly dries tied with lots of materials float really high and do not work well on the lower Yuba. The fish are smart, and if it doesn’t look like the real thing, they will not eat it. When fishing to pods of trout sipping mayflies in the tailouts, I advise fishing two flies, a mayfly dun with an emerger tied as a dropper behind it. The dun helps you to recognize where your fly is in relation to the emerger. In most circumstances, the trout are going to eat the emerger, because that fly is lower in the water column.

In the summer, the lower Yuba has decent grasshopper fishing. A lot of anglers don’t know this, but in the heat of a Northern California valley summer, you can go out on the lower Yuba and cast hopper imitations toward the banks, and the fish will hammer them. The heat is going to keep the majority of anglers away, but if you can handle 100-plus-degree days, there is some fun fishing to be had. The hopper fishing is not going to be as good as in the Rockies, but it is going to be very entertaining to watch rainbows come off the banks and riffles to inhale your dry fly. Try fishing hoppers in tan, yellow, or even pink.

The fall is all about the power of the egg. As salmon come into the river to spawn, all of the trout and steelhead go crazy for their eggs. The famous autumn egg bite in Northern California is my favorite time of year to be on the lower Yuba. The lower Yuba gets the first egg bite of all the Northern California valley rivers. Generally, it starts at the beginning of October and runs until the middle of November. The key to fishing the egg bite is finding the salmon. Find salmon spawning, and you are going to find fish feeding behind them. Focusing on those areas is going to greatly increase your chances of catching fish in the fall.

Perseverance Furthers

When fishing the Yuba, a lot of anglers give up and get frustrated by the changing conditions. Adapt to the changes, and don’t get discouraged. Remember: just try to catch one fish in each spot. If you don’t catch one, that is OK. Move on to the next spot and try to catch one there. If you approach the river in this manner, you will start looking at it more analytically. Don’t give up. In time, if you pay attention to what is happening on the water and you use some of these tips, you will become more successful.

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