Trinity River, Yuba goldfields, Yuba River

Still Murky and High

Crazy High Flow Below NF Trinity

The rivers are dropping but still too murky to be in optimal fishing conditions. The Trinity trip was turned into a day trip after seeing that the flows were way too high and murky to fish. It hasn’t been the greatest time for fishing rivers and streams for me.

Trinity River
My brother and I set out in the morning and got to Steel Bridge before there were any other anglers out. The water was pretty off colored. I was using my switch rod swinging some big bright winter steelhead flies that I had bought. I hooked and fought what felt like a nice fish for about two seconds and lost it. I wasn’t too happy about that.

Steel Bridge Access

We covered all the water we could but the tributaries were just blowing out like rapids. We stopped by Douglas City, Junction City, North Fork of the Trinity, and near the dam before calling it quits. I know they are there I just need it to be at the right place at the right time. The weather, time, water color, and flows have to be ideal before even considering another trip. So you’re telling me there’s a chance…

Salmander

Yuba River & Goldfield
After a not so great trip on the Trinity I had to drop my brother off back in Marysville. I fished the Yuba before heading back to Chico and it wasn’t in that great of condition either. The flows looked right but the water was still murky. There were about 5-6 cars on Parks Bar fishing above the bridge. I opted out on trying to fish with all those people so I fished below the bridge. I managed to to hook and fight a decent feeling fish but lost it. After all the bad luck, I needed to beat the skunk. I decided to try and go for some winter largemouth before I left.

Winter Bass Skunk Beater

I arrived at the pond that I wanted to fish in the goldfields after navigating through the road full of plot holes that were filled with water. A pain in the ass if you don’t have a 4×4. Once I actually got to the pond I had realized I forgotten my fly box with my streamers in the car. Screw that I’m not walking all the way back. I fished a few flies until hooking a small bass on a San Juan worm. Yes! The curse had been lifted. I continued to fish and saw a big splash across the pond. Cool, there’s a big bass rising, probably just the only one. I kept fishing the area I was at until I saw a second big splash. The sun is just under the horizon I had to fish that spot before I left. I got there as quickly as I could and saw some nice size bass hanging around a school of fish that looked like small bluegills. Cast after cast I tried to get one interested in my fly but they were saying nope I don’t really feel like it.  After about ten minutes it became too dark to fish and I left for home. Damn it. I’ll get them next time.

The rivers should clear up soon… hopefully. The Feather is still chocolate and I’m looking at the NF Feather River and Butte Creek as my next targets. If murky then I’ll be trying to get better at winter bass fishing. One of the great things about bass fishing in the winter is that no one else is out. I’ll take it.

Happy Holidays!

Feather River, Yuba River

The Storm After Tomorrow

Well it was fun while it lasted. I watched as the “Storm of the Century” passed through and blow out all the valley rivers and streams. I kept track of the flows and it was pretty fun watching them reach such high flows in such a short amount of time. Looks like there is some snow up in the mountains and my family that’s in Quincy said they got over 9” of snow. It doesn’t show signs of stopping as the rains continue to fall every other day until next week? I should probably learn how to fish for winter bass or get more confident at fishing muddy streams because it’ll probably be like this for a while.

Yuba River
The most recent place I’ve fished since the storm was this past weekend on the Yuba. The clarity wasn’t too bad but bad enough to where you couldn’t see a damn thing. There were a couple of other anglers out that said they got into some nice fish on your typical murky water flies. My brother and I didn’t do too well but I did manage to hook a native and hand it over to my brother to fight. I mostly spent the day teaching him the ropes. It was all good practice for the Trinity this weekend.

Muddy water. No Problem

Feather River
I was out on the Feather this morning not knowing what the conditions were going to be like. It was awful. The water was literally chocolate. I was practicing swinging flies for the Trinity trip and didn’t catch anything but a snagged Sac sucker. That river will take a least a week to clear.

I scouted out some of the American River and the currently closed section I looked at was murky of course… but it also had a lot of good water that was very accessible. The river looks very easy to fish and geography wise is similar to the Feather. I’m planning on making a trip down there some day during the winter.
The Trinity River trip is looking good. The river clears a lot faster due to the geography and the flows are looking good for some fresh winter steelies. I am so amped.
The Valley rivers and streams are not looking so good clarity and flow wise right now and it’ll take a few days or weeks for them to get back to prime fishing conditions. Until then its just tying flies, cleaning gear, and enjoying the holidays.

There is always something to look forward as my season never ends: The Yuba River skwala hatch, winter steelheading, new sections of rivers opening. The chasing never stops

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