Yuba River Fly Fishing Report

Jordan Romney Reports on 1.9.2018

Yuba Dry Fly Game

It has been a pretty incredible start to the year on the Lower Yuba.  This has been the best winter dry fly fishing I have ever seen when it comes to the action.  I think a lot has to do with the weather we had all December.  The warm days produced great hatches of the BWOs.   The fish responded well.  

Lately it has stayed steady until this week.  We got a few inches of rain in the foothills so Deer Creek blew out.  When checking the flows for the Lower Yuba make sure to check out what Deer Creek is doing.  This feeder creek brings a lot of mud.  If you see a big spike on Deer Creek the Yuba is most likely chocolate milk. In all honesty, the river needed a little color.  

The next week or so shows clear weather.  The river should drop and get back into shape quickly.  What we are looking forward to is getting a chance to have a good Skwala season.  It has been years since we have had a good skwala hatch.  Due to droughts and floods we haven’t had good water condition for that hatch.  For those of you who unaware, the skwala is a huge stonefly that hatches in the late winter on the Yuba.  It is one of the most anticipated dry fly hatches we have in California.  

If the weather stays mild it should happen.  We have already been seeing they nymphs on the edges.  Not in numbers yet but it is early.  Let’s put the bobbers on hold for a bit.  Let’s hope for the skwala.  Our back up are the blue wing olives.  Our last option is the nymph.

Sycamore Ranch is closed until March.  This will limited some access however you can get to all the Sycamore water through Hammond Grove.  The big problem is that our boat ramp for the drift boats is on Sycamore’s property. Not worry, I did some critical thinking and found a spot to get the boat out.  

I am putting on a Dry Fly clinic on January 27th on the Yuba.  This clinic is based for all levels of anglers.  Up first, we will do a casting tune up.  I’ll look at your cast and we will figure out where you need improvements.  We will go over fly selection and a bit of entomology.  I am a big believer in approach to the fish.  We will go over how to choose a downstream or upstream approach.  You’ll learn the importance of a reach cast.  We will also take a look at rigging, leaders, and what floatants to use.