Butte Creek, Feather River, Yuba River

Winter Is Coming

Its starting to get cold and the fishing is in a weird transitional late fall early winter limbo. I’ve been finding that sometimes the fishing is good and other times its really poor. I’ve spent some time on the Feather, Yuba, and Butte creek chasing trout and steelhead. Finding and hooking into a fish isn’t too hard, its the playing and landing that I’ve had the worst luck with.

Yuba River Bow

Butte Creek
I fished Butte Creek after the latest rain storm and the flows were low around 127 CFS that day. The water was a bit off color and there were little signs of salmon around. I must have seen three salmon in a two mile stretch. I hooked and quick-released an 18”+ steelhead on a soft hackle which made it a pretty worth day. Beautiful fish, I wish I could have netted it and taken a picture. Note to self take your time when fighting a steelhead on a 3wt rod. I went 1/5 the whole day which is great considering I didn’t think I’d hook anything. Maybe with some more rain it’ll put more steelhead in the system. Here is to more rain.

Little Resident Butte Trout



Feather River
The Feather has been hit and miss. There are always steelhead around but its still pretty crowded. The fish are still taking eggs but its pretty much a salmon graveyard out there now. The fish are scattered throughout the low flow and with some rain, there should be a push of hatchery fish coming up the river. I want the high flow to start fishing well because I’m getting pretty fed up fishing the same runs and riffles again and again.

Yuba River
I wish I could lie and say that the fishing was good on the Yuba. For the last two days I’ve fished it I’ve only caught one fish. The first day it was sight casting to suckers and the following morning it was sight casting to a nice trout. I didn’t see a single person hook up the whole time I was there. I met up with some other anglers next to my car and they said they hooked three. So I don’t know.

Unsuspecting sucker

I’ll probably keep trying my luck on these rivers until I plan a trip to the Trinity or the American for some big ol winter steelhead.

Feather River

The Tug Is The Drug… If you can find it.

With a broken 6 wt I’ve started using my new switch rod outfit.

Switch Rod Outfit
Redington CPX 7wt  11’3”
Redington Surge 7/8/9
Rio Switch Chucker Line

The CPX is a great discountined rod that casts great and is also fun to fight fish with. I have the Rio Switch Chucker in the spool right now and so far its holding up great for what I need it for. The line does great swinging and is okay at indicator nymphing. I don’t think I’m casting it out the furthest it can go but I can cast further more effortlessly in comparison to my single-handed 6wt.
Nothing feels more bad ass and true to steelheading than fishing with a two-handed rod. Got to get it out there? Bam! There it goes way out there. Don’t have room to backcast? Snap-T! There it is. It can do a bit of everything and I’m diggin’ it.

Feather River
I’ve been reading and talking to anglers who fish the fall-run on the Feather and they say its been the most crowded its ever been. I couldn’t agree more. These fish are being hammered on a daily basis and wrecked on weekends. Before everyone started showing up on the river I managed to catch and land at least one during my half days there but since then its been tough. Not to mention, the lack of rain with no new fish being added to the system, bright clear days, moderate numbers of a returning salmon, and other factors that make it challenging.

I hit the Feather today early and was the first on the river. It always pays off. I swung through a run and hooked a nice steelie on a nice tight-line and it felt amazing when it hit. Of course it jumped and I should have stripped my line instead of trying to get it on the reel. Rookie mistake. Later on the way to my car that same run at two driftboats and a wade angler fishing it. Really…. on a Tuesday? C-R-O-W-D-E-D.

I fished the rest of the day without much luck. Didn’t get skunked though. Caught a little native bow about 8” long. Hopefully the fishing will get better with this weather system coming in.

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