Report - L. Sac and L. Yuba
I spent most of this last week guiding the L. Sac and the L. Yuba and fishing was good on both of them. I did get one striper day in and fishing good there as well.
Lower Sac - I floated from Posse down to Barge Hole in the days I was up there and the whole stretch fished well. I did Posse to Anderson and Anderson to Barge a few times both and caught good numbers of fish on both floats. Right now the bigger fish seem to be coming from about Posse down to Bonnie View but there are a ton of boats on that float right now as well. Hot bugs for me up top were various caddis and small mayfly nymphs in size #16 and #18. Between Anderson and Barge has been a great float for me as I have had it to myself every time I have done it. Rare to get a float on the L. Sac all to yourself. Been getting good numbers down here but not the size like up top. Average fish down here is about 16". Have hooked a few fin clipped "half pounder" steelhead which is always a nice benefit of fishing down low. Hot flies have been rubber leggs, birds nest, and caddis patterns. One thing that is nice about down low is you can get away with bigger flies.
Lower Yuba - Flows on the Lower Yuba have been stable now for a few weeks around 3500cfs and fishing has been good. I love this flow as there are so many cool spots to fish and types of water that aren't fishable when the flows are lower. Most of my fish, believe it or not, are coming from spots that are very accessible for wade fishermen. Most are not the standard spots though so think a bit outside the box if you are going to go fish out there. Hot flies have been rubber leggs, red copper johns, and various birdsnest and attractor patterns. Hatches have been limited and I have seen almost no fish working the surface. I have had clients pull up a few fish throwing hoppers, but nothing that I would say constitutes good dry fly fishing. The fish seem to be healthy and fat considering all the high water. Most of the fish I have been catching are in the 12-14" bracket, but on the Yuba that fish is pretty hot. Everyday I have been out there we are getting half dozen 16-18" fish with a few around 20" over the last few days. These fish are a little skinny, but nothing like I have seen in previous high water years. Furthermore, the river has changed very little with all the high water. There are some subtle changes in runs and buckets but no big channel changes like in previous high water years. Also lots of new pea size gravel for salmon to spawn and all the old redds have been flattened out making it easy for salmon to make new redds.
Striper fishing has been good as well though I haven't been out there a ton. I had one day out on the Sac and we did the 5am meet time looking for some early morning top water action. We had a few blow ups but nothing that justified the early start in my opinion, especially when we found a few good pods of fish smashing bait midday on the surface. We threw top water to these fish and got a few nice 5-8lb schoolies as well as breaking off a bigger fish. Overall it has been a very good summer striper season and should only get better as we head into prime top water time in August.
Over and Out
Lower Sac - I floated from Posse down to Barge Hole in the days I was up there and the whole stretch fished well. I did Posse to Anderson and Anderson to Barge a few times both and caught good numbers of fish on both floats. Right now the bigger fish seem to be coming from about Posse down to Bonnie View but there are a ton of boats on that float right now as well. Hot bugs for me up top were various caddis and small mayfly nymphs in size #16 and #18. Between Anderson and Barge has been a great float for me as I have had it to myself every time I have done it. Rare to get a float on the L. Sac all to yourself. Been getting good numbers down here but not the size like up top. Average fish down here is about 16". Have hooked a few fin clipped "half pounder" steelhead which is always a nice benefit of fishing down low. Hot flies have been rubber leggs, birds nest, and caddis patterns. One thing that is nice about down low is you can get away with bigger flies.
Lower Yuba - Flows on the Lower Yuba have been stable now for a few weeks around 3500cfs and fishing has been good. I love this flow as there are so many cool spots to fish and types of water that aren't fishable when the flows are lower. Most of my fish, believe it or not, are coming from spots that are very accessible for wade fishermen. Most are not the standard spots though so think a bit outside the box if you are going to go fish out there. Hot flies have been rubber leggs, red copper johns, and various birdsnest and attractor patterns. Hatches have been limited and I have seen almost no fish working the surface. I have had clients pull up a few fish throwing hoppers, but nothing that I would say constitutes good dry fly fishing. The fish seem to be healthy and fat considering all the high water. Most of the fish I have been catching are in the 12-14" bracket, but on the Yuba that fish is pretty hot. Everyday I have been out there we are getting half dozen 16-18" fish with a few around 20" over the last few days. These fish are a little skinny, but nothing like I have seen in previous high water years. Furthermore, the river has changed very little with all the high water. There are some subtle changes in runs and buckets but no big channel changes like in previous high water years. Also lots of new pea size gravel for salmon to spawn and all the old redds have been flattened out making it easy for salmon to make new redds.
Striper fishing has been good as well though I haven't been out there a ton. I had one day out on the Sac and we did the 5am meet time looking for some early morning top water action. We had a few blow ups but nothing that justified the early start in my opinion, especially when we found a few good pods of fish smashing bait midday on the surface. We threw top water to these fish and got a few nice 5-8lb schoolies as well as breaking off a bigger fish. Overall it has been a very good summer striper season and should only get better as we head into prime top water time in August.
Over and Out