Yuba River Fly Fishing Report

Hogan Brown Reports on 12.8.2016

Lower Yuba River - spent a few days on the Lower Yuba River last week. Flows are stable around 1000cfs but could drop any time if we don’t get some rain like forecasted at the end of this week. They were suppose to drop this weekend but I think with the forecasted rain they have kept them up. Fishing was good. The fish seem to be getting out of their November funk and getting back on the feed. Most fishing pressure is concentrated from the bridge up with the opener last week. I floated from just above the  bridge down to Daguerre and I can’t say above the bridge fished any better or worse. I fished a run above the bridge and by the time I left there was a line up of 5 guys in it…Fishing pressure like that is going to put those fish down quick and push them around so. Our bigger fish came lower in the river and from what I could tell fish seemed to be spread out throughout the river.

There was a great Baetis hatch from about 12 until 3pm and I found multiple pods of fish up in the slicks chowing down. Good pods of 5-12 fish steadily rising to Baetis. That said they were tough most days. We stuck a few but stealthy boat maneuvering and good casts were a must. None of the feeding fish were accessible to a bank angler though I saw John Baiocchi wade fishing on the river and he said he got some fish on dry flies. Most of my fish came on egg attractor patterns, rubber legs, and attractor nymphs in #12-16. Even with Baetis out in force I could not get the fish to eat the nymph AT ALL.

Winter is a great time to fish the Lower Yuba. I would have to say it is quickly becoming my favorite season on the river.