LOWER YUBA RIVER REPORT 12/6/24
Ben Thompson: The egg bite peaked a few weeks back but there are currently still plenty of fish eating eggs. Salmon are still on redds in certain areas and a lot of the trout are concentrated around them. Indicator fishing with eggs and an assortment of caddis/mayflies is still very productive. What also has been awesome is for the last month including after the big storm, we have been able to raise fish on dry flies consistently each day. Mid morning to mid day and sometimes into the afternoon we have caught fish on dry flies including size 16-18 pmds, Mercer's missing link caddis, elk hair caddis, and small parachute adams. It is great to see the fish looking up to eat and I hope it continues throughout winter. We hope for a good skwala season starting in February and for reasonable flows throughout spring.
Our Favorite YUBA RIVER Flies
LOWER YUBA RIVER REPORT 10/27/24
Ben Thompson: Lower Yuba and Valley Steelhead Fishing Report
Flows: Lower Yuba- 1,150 cfs
Lower American- 1,150 cfs
Lower Feather- Low Flow 821 cfs High Flow 1,600 cfs
The southern valley rivers are all fishing well in classic October fashion, and they are fishing similarly throughout the day. Salmon are still actively spawning in multiple places although not as many as earlier in October. Fishing eggs and baetis/attractors in the morning and then one egg and two caddis in the afternoon has been productive. Tan birds nests and fox's pupas have been solid but could change as the weather is starting to turn. On days where the fish have seen a lot of pressure, cutting the egg off in the afternoon and only fishing nymphs can help significantly. For dry fly fishing, the Yuba has had risers on warmer days like yesterday when I was out there. There was also a lot of fish chasing emergers. Small size 18-20 parachute adams on 5x is a good ticket to work the rising fish if there is no obviously larger fly hatching. For swing anglers a birds nest or a leech can get you bit in the right location. If wade anglers could watch for the cleaned off spots in the rocks, not stepping on these spawning beds will be helpful for the future of the salmon and our fisheries. Over the coming months can be a good time to catch quality steelhead, and if we have a mild winter the Lower Yuba should be a good option through winter into spring. I look forward to the winter baetis hatches and more importantly the skwala stonefly hatch in February and rolling right into March browns, pinkies, yellow sallies etc.
LOWER YUBA RIVER REPORT 8/28/24
Ben Thompson: The Yuba is nymphing very well and we are still seeing some hopper action but we are on the tail end of the most epic hopper summer I have ever seen out there. We should be able to get fish to eat hoppers til about mid September, weather dependent. As we move more into fall more and more salmon will come into the river to drop eggs and the trout will start to key in on them. Some years at some point in early fall the bulk of the salmon will be spawning in the upper stretches which closes Sept 1 and a lot of the trout will follow them up there to feed. When more salmon start spawning in the lower river, it becomes prime time egg bite conditions on the Yuba. Fish will not only eat the eggs but the bugs that the salmon kick up when digging redds. October, November and often December are a great time to fish out there and hopefully we get a few steelhead in the mix. Caddis, baetis, perdigons and other classic attractor nymphs run in tandem with an egg can be very productive.
