Chips Creek, Middle Fork Feather River, Yellow Creek

Exploring Somewhere New and Somewhere Old

Chips Creek

It’s finally happened… The first heat wave of the year and right on time. This weekend Manda and I set out to explore Chips Creek, a tributary of the NFFR, and visit the MFFR. The water is running a bit high throughout Plumas County but more is better than less.

Chips Creek
Chips Creek is a small tributary along HWY 70 that feeds the NFFR. The access to the creek was good but with the higher flows it was hard to get around. I wasn’t able to go as far as I would have liked upstream but I did manage to find a few good eats here and there on nymphs. I heard that there are some big fish in this tributary and after hooking one and losing it I can confirm the rumors are true. Chips Creek was a fun stream to explore and I look forward to fishing it more when the flows go down.

Chips Creek Bow

Yellow Creek
Yellow Creek is one of the most well-known tributaries of the NFFR. Unlike Chips Creek, Yellow Creek has a dedicated trail that parallels the creek as you hike upstream. Yellow Creek rainbows seem to prefer dries over nymphs. Each time I visit the creek it seems like a good drift with a dry fly produces more fish than dead drifting nymphs. The fish here aren’t very big but they fight like strong wild rainbows.

Yellow Creek Flows

MFFR
My visit to the Middle Fork during last year’s Memorial Day weekend was such a great experience that I tried to relive it again this year. The flows were much higher this year due to the run-off and made parts of the river unwadeable. Although I wasn’t able to get very far into the canyon, I managed to hook into some of the baddest and wildest rainbows I’ve ever hooked on the Middle Fork.

Nelson Creek

Most of the fish I hooked were less than ten inches but the two that were above sixteen inches fought like wild steelhead. The first biggie I hooked was on a streamer and it was not happy when it got hooked.

There were an assortment of caddis and midges in the air and the fish were on them. The fish of the day was found when I observed an adult caddis get smacked as it skipped across the current. It was dry fly time.
My first cast with a fresh EC Caddis and I get the take. At first the fish didn’t look very big but once it ran downstream into a pool where I could see it, I saw that this fish was at least eighteen inches. The fish of the day would not stay out of the current and after a few minutes of play it threw the hook. Bummer but at least I know that big fish is still out there.

The Only Fish That Would Stay On At The MFFR
Ellis Lake, Feather River, Yuba River

Local Fun-filled Fishing

Yuba Quality

Another week of high Yuba flows means tough fishing and no pressure. I found the fish though, I always find them. Three hook-ups, three in the net.
The warmer months are a tough time to fish the Yuba. Not much is happening with the bug life but with a few secret tricks I was able to hook and land three fish over the 16″ mark. The fish hooked to amount of time spend ratio was good this trip at about one fish per hour. The conditions were bright with high flows and gin clear water, some of the toughest conditions you can face on the Yuba.

Big Head Mode

The longest fish I landed this trip had a huge head but skinny body almost like he was starving. I’ve heard that when big storm events with huge flows blowout the Yuba several times a lot of bugs get dislodged and blown away downstream. Once the river settles and the flows go back to normal the fish have a hard time finding food which causes them lose a lot of weight. Could we possibly see this event again? It’s too early to tell at the moment but I’m crossing my fingers it doesn’t happen.

The Yuba Is My Fly Fishing School

Another theory that could explain why this fish was skinny could be related to the spawn. Fish tend to use a lot of energy when they are spawning and it’s not uncommon to find them looking like they haven’t eaten in several weeks after they are finished. Yuba bows spawn in the spring which means that there could be a few fish in the system in their post-spawn bodies.

Feather River
The flows have been cranked up and the wading is even more difficult than before. Waders were necessary if you want to hook fish in the run I was in. The water is high, discolored, and colder than usual. I went out one evening this week and hooked a couple of small male shad. Nothing too exciting, shad to be had.

Shad Splash

Ellis Lake
The lake was stocked this last weekend with catfish for the Kid’s Fishing Derby. As always there are a lot of dead catfish floating along the banks after the event due to the heavy fishing pressure and bio imbalance. Why the organizations that put this event together don’t clean up their mess after it’s over is beyond me. As I drove around town today I saw a man with a pool cleaning net cleaning up their mess. Bless that man, the Guardian of the Lake.

There are a lot of anglers bait and waiting the lake but very few are catching any fish. After top water fishing for bluegill in the evening, I finally caught my first catfish of the year on a clouser.

First Catfish of 2016
1 2 3 4