Central Valley

Lower Yuba

by Ed Hood June 04, 2013

My buddy Sebastian and I fished the lower Yuba with the hopes that we would hook into hard-fighting Summer steelhead and healthy rainbows. Well, we did just that. Sebastian was on the water early, around 8am… about the time I was crawling out of bed. We were anticipating fishing in Marysville at the confluence of the Yuba and Feather rivers, expecting that the Highway 20 section of the Yuba may heat up too much and shut the fishing off for the afternoon (it hit 100 degrees at 2pm). I arrived at the Parks Bar Bridge at 11:30am and Sebastian said the fishing was excellent, so we stayed and hiked about a mile upstream of the bridge and the river did not disappoint. We hooked into many quality steelhead and fat rainbows, many lost because the fish are so strong in that river and the violent headshakes make keeping the fish hooked a challenge.

For as much as that river has gone through in its history (destructive gold mining and quarrying), it’s amazing that the river is so healthy — one of the healthiest in the state I’m sure. Cold water, great insect hatches, and happy fish make this a river that should gain some more respect from anglers.

Clear, cold water and good spawning beds make for happy fish.

For those who haven’t fished the Yuba, having a longer rod (10′ single-hand or 11′ switch rod) is critical to fishing this big river. A 6-wt. is also a recommended rod as these fish fight very hard and know how to use the fast current to their advantage. While a 5-wt. could (and does) work, you’ll likely find you’ll enjoy fishing this river more with a slightly stiffer rod. Sebastian was using his 11′ 6-wt. Orvis Access switch rod with a 375 grain Rio Skagit Short head and custom floating tip. I was looking to land my first fish on my Orvis Helios 2 10′ 6-wt. (which I did, and it was amazing) matched with Orvis’ Hydros 7-wt. Salmon/Steelhead floating line and 9′ 4x fluorocarbon leader.

The Yuba has a fairly rare hatch that come off: the “pink lady”. This is a mayfly with a pink body when it is in its “spinner” stage. Sebastian tried fishing dry flies in the morning since fish were rising, but they were all ignoring his fly. Unfortunately neither of us had the proper pattern, but a couple of good patterns for this hatch are the Quigley’s Hackle Stacker and Quigley’s Film Critic. Sticking with nymphs, some favorites for this river are the: Jimmy Legs, Two-Bit Hooker, Fly Formerly Known as Prince, and caddis pupae.

Working in a fly shop, I hear a lot about how the Yuba doesn’t fish well at all. This isn’t exactly true. While the Yuba fish can definitely be finicky, this river does require time to be put into it and to have some local knowledge — a lot like the Truckee. Here are a few tips:

Be sure to put enough weight on your nymph rig to get it down fast. This river usually has pretty high flows and the fish are down low, so don’t be bashful with putting on split shot.
“The swing is the thing.” Swinging nymphs just seem to work better than dead drifting on the Yuba.
Fish the edges. Literally the length of your rod from the shore.
Find underwater ledges and have your flies drop into them from above. One of the best holes we fished had a riffle above and a deep shelf. We let the flies sink at the riffle and the nymphs just dropped into the hole… lots of fish were stacked in there.

Don’t skip the water that’s 10-feet from the shore. And when swinging, make sure the flies end their swing in water like this.

The Yuba make for an excellent day trip from San Jose. It takes about 2.5 hours to get to the Parks Bar Bridge. Access to the river from this bridge is either taking Parks Bar Rd. (the last road on the right just before the bridge) and parking underneath the bridge or Timbuctoo Rd., the first right after the bridge, which will take you to a dirt road under the bridge if you want to fish downstream of the bridge. And make sure you are wearing sun protection since there is almost no cover on the river and temperatures regularly hit 80 – 100 degrees in the Summer.