Yuba River Fly Fishing Report

The Lower Yuba came into shape for about 24 hours. Late Sunday to mid monday but then Mondays rains blew deer creek out. As of now (tuesday morning) Deer Creek seems to have peaked around 250cfs and is kinda hanging there, hopefully dropping as the day goes on. The main river is down at 816cfs and holding. I imagine the river will be fishable if not by late today, tomorrow midday, depends on what deer creek does. Good time to get out and swing some flies and fish some big attractor nymphs with eggs.

Open Dates

With a break in the weather, and the flows coming down from the now famous Stormageddon, it was an opportune time to make a few casts on Sunday, and get the real scoop on the river conditions. I spent my time below the Hwy 20 bridge and I was amazed that I only saw two anglers out. It was eerily quiet, except for the 2 strokes and 4 strokes getting their roost on, and letting out some braps as they flew by every now and then. 

There is still some Salmon in the river, with carcasses lining the high water mark, they give it their all to keep the species going, while their lifeless bodies give back to the ecosystem. I noticed some fry in the side water, but not a whole bunch. This means there is still eggs in the redds, and some alevins hiding in the gravel. Walk and wade anglers, please look before you step, and stay clear of the redds! I can’t stress this enough. In reality there is no reason to wade out, as you can fish effectively right off the bank in many different areas. The rainbows are still pretty much locked in on eggs. Swinging alevins, and small minnow patterns in a gray and white scheme with a little pearl flash is starting to produce as well. Seine samples today produced many micro midge larva and pupa, and many small mayfly nymphs which I deemed to be BWO’s. The big news of the day was the many Skwala nymphs I found staging in the slow quiet water next to the bank, below the riffles. I saw quite a few while rolling rocks no more than a foot of the bank. No adults yet that I saw, but it’s only going to be a matter of time.

The flows on Saturday were running at 2,548 cfs, and through Sunday they were dropped down to 816 cfs. Today the river is flowing at 812 cfs. Deer Creek got up to 2,700 cfs during Stormageddon, but now has dropped down to 50 cfs and rising from recent rainfall. Moderate storms are predicted through the week with a possible 3 inches, but after the last storm, I’ll believe the numbers after the rain has fallen. Stay tuned, I’ll let you know the progress of the Skwala Nation as we move forward into the New Year.