Lower Yuba River Fly Fishing Report ~ 11/7/2020

I’ve been on the Lower Yuba River quite a bit in the past month and staying below the radar in regards to details and posting. It’s been really good if you know how to play the “Egg Bite” game, and more on that further down later in this post. So, we’ve finally got a change in the weather with much colder temperatures and what looks like some very light precipitation. Wimpy storms are such a tease though. I’m not going to make any predictions, but we could see a few inches of fresh on the crest of the Northern Sierra according to Brian Allegretto of https://opensnow.com/dailysnow/tahoe - bookmark his site, it’s one of my “go to” tools for weather, which translates into flow forecasting on the Yuba River. Another link to bookmark is California Data Exchange Center’s flow forecast here - https://cdec.water.ca.gov/guidance_plots/MRY_gp.html. Fishing pressure has dramatically increased as of late with more boats, and wading anglers. Still plenty of room though, were we can all spread out and enjoy ourselves on the river. Flows have been stable at from 970 to 1,118 cubes.

The egg bite has been on and my guests and I have seen some incredible fishing. As far as numbers go, the egg bite has provided the most abundant of them than any other time of year. I receive so many emails and messages on the details of the egg bite so let’s get into that. There are many different flies, styles, and ways to present eggs. Old school glow bugs, pegged beads, and nymph/bead combos. I use the pegged bead method. Keeping your bead about half an inch to a full inch away from your bare hook is a good move and will almost always see the hook inside the mouth of an egg eater. Any further away and you’re hooking eye balls, gills, and throats. 

Pre rigging different colored beads on a set length of tippet is wise for a quick change out. I use a short length of pipe insulation with a produce rubber band to hold the tag ends of the tippet in place.

“What size eggs are you using”? Egg sizes should be 8mm with clear water, 10mm for dirty water. If you’re presenting eggs on a river that only has trout, 6mm in clear water, and 8mm in dirty water. “What’s the best color”? That varies so much from day to day, the actual age of the egg itself, and the location on the river that I can’t even answer that. Fresh roe has a red hue to them, and as they age they become more orange and lighter in color. On my last 4 guide trips, shades of red did well in the morning, then lighter creamy orange in the afternoons. The angle and lower arc of the sun has much to do with this during the fall season. Many different colors are offered from https://troutbeads.com/ - Check them out.

I’ve been teaching my guests how to effectively long line tight line nymph this fall on the Yuba River, yep, no indicator needed. It’s a much simpler and cleaner rig with less hinge points in the system, which really helps those with beginner skill sets. I will say though, the key to success with this style is you must keep your slack to an absolute minimum, stay 100% focused on your drift, and set the hook when in doubt – Hook sets are free, so do it often. You’ll be surprised. 

The cool bonus to LLTLN is that you can let the rig swing at the end of the drift and let it hang in the current for the grab. If you want to learn this valuable nymphing technique that was taught to me by my good fishing buddy Roger who puts in 150 days plus on the Yuba River, get on my calendar.

Feather River hatchery steelhead

I’ve been using eggs, worms, stones, and small baetis nymphs for flies. When in doubt, add more split shot or use heavier flies to get down, especially with heavy current. I’m amazed how fast of water the resident trout and steelhead can hold in. All they need is a small deflection on the bottom substrate to shelter from the current, like a large cobblestone, and they’ll be there. It’s so cool! These trout are superior athletes that are basically finning on a treadmill 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Pound for pound, they’re the strongest trout in moving water I’ve ever fought. 

Hatches are sporadic and light, you’ll find some localized PMDs duns on the surface in the bigger flats, a few caddis, or a few BWOs, but really, it’s all about the high protein content of salmon eggs for the trout right now. 

I’ve been talking with the fisheries biologists on the river doing spent salmon counts, and they have said the salmon return this year is much better than in the past 5 years. You can see the past counts from the graph above. It wasn’t that long ago when the salmon population was 5 times as much.

Your best bet for success is to find the salmon redds that are active with spawning salmon, even better if they are in the process of “cutting” a new or existing redd with their tail fins. When the salmon do this, they are stirring up other food items such as free living caddis, mayfly nymphs, midge pupa, and aquatic worms. These trout will move on from one area of salmon redds to another. Every day is different, and observing more and casting less holds true. 

Photo courtesy of Bill Burden

FYI, and this has been repeatedly said over the years, is for walk and wade anglers to be aware and do not walk across the salmon redds, whether they are new or old. Mother Nature has an effective way of protecting the eggs within the smaller cobble stones from harm. It’s during the alevin stage is where they are most susceptible to being crushed. So, do not walk through salmon redds, and if you must wade around them, do so upstream of the redd that has a dark color and mossy character to the bottom of the stream bed. Many of my guests have no idea what a salmon redd looks like, and this is why I love to educate those fly anglers during my walk and wade trips, where one can truly get up close and study them. Bright clean, to slightly clean depressions is the telltale sign of a salmon redd, whether salmon are present or not. The eggs are in within the redds for 57 to 60 days depending on water temperatures.

A change in the weather is going to do some good, I’m anxious to get back out there myself, it’s been fun! I have some open days through the rest of 2020, if you want to learn more about the Yuba River, and the best way to approach it from a walk and wade perspective, email me at baiocchistroutfitters@yahoo.com  

Busman’s Holiday – Trinity River & the Lower Sacramento River

What a trip! My buddy Trevor Fagerskog and I hit it perfect! The first part of the trip was a float on the Trinity River with Brian Clemens of Nor Cal Fly Guides. Despite no new rain, we found many steelhead. Location, flies, and techniques will not be disclosed as advised by our guide. If you know…you know.

Day two was on the Lower Sac, again with Brian. It my first time floating it and to be honest I haven’t fished it in over two decades! That’s a long time, but hey, business has been booming for that long. It was a totally different experience than the day before which I would describe as a wilderness adventure. The Lower Sac is quite the scene complete with pirates, a flotilla of drift boats, and really nice houses right on the river. The fishing? We hammered them as you can see below! Eggs, stones, tiny mayfly nymphs, and caddis pupa all were effective. Typical Lower Sac treats for the resident trout and steelhead. I’m looking forward to my spring trip with Tahoe Truckee Fly Fishers, it’s going to be awesome!

See you on the banks of the Lower Yuba River…