Feather River, Sacramento River, Yuba River

Ends of February

Yuba River Hen

Rain has arrived and we got quite a bit of it. With that a lot of good fishing happened and I was lucky enough to get a few here and there. The water is starting to clear now and later this week there will be more rain to change the color and rise our rivers to make it fishing excellent again. Let it rain, let it rain. Lets go Sac River, Feather River, and Yuba River!

Sacramento River
The Washout in Chico was fishing pretty well with
the release of the planter run. I probably missed it about a week or two
but they were there for the amount of time I fished. They weren’t big but they were rising like crazy and would eat any dry I threw at
them. It was nice to get some action on a dry fly this early in the
season. This part of the river was blown out by the rain but it was fun
while it lasted.

Sac River Trout

Feather River
I have never fished the Feather above the HWY 70 bridge. I now realize how great a fishery this area is for steelhead since it is literally next to the hatchery. The water was dirty and the sky was overcasted making it the perfect time to fish for steelhead. I hooked a few and lost them but I landed one for each day that I went there. These fish are tricky to get to bite but once you hook one they put up a great fight. These fish were taking eggs and small fry patterns. The fishing became difficult as the the water is now clear making the fish a lot more wary of what is going on around them. Although not crowded while I was there, there is a limited space in this section. I guess I am just use to fishing with less people. Hopefully the water dirties up within the next rain to make the fish aggressive again.

Post Spawned Steelhead

Yuba River
I went to the Yuba after the rains thinking it wouldn’t but as blown out as I thought it was going to be. The water was very muddy and the clarity was less than 1ft but I manage to hook a nice fish in the spot that I knew they would be holding. The skwalas were around making it pretty easy to match what they would be eating but the Yuba River is always unforgiving especially when the clarity is so bad.