SURPRISE AT YUBA

WooHooooooo!!!

First of all, let me just say that I'm sooooo happy to be back online! Thanks to my brother, my pc is fixed (somehow) and my forum addiction can be appeased. Thanks to everyone who stayed in contact via the old forum pm's (while that lasted). And SPECIAL thanks to FishGlyph for playing middleman, posting some basic reports for me, and keeping me in the loop on everything. Not too many folks would do that and I knew right where to join once my access was restored. Again, thanks.

More gratitude goes to "the team" that brought this site into fruition. This is home for those of us who became displaced by the DWR shindig. I'm sure it will be every bit as good as the old site and more (except I can't access at work now :lol: ). And thanks to the folks that posted responses and showed support while I was limited to email interaction.

Okay, enough of the sappy stuff! Let's get a report in here, eh?
_____________________________________________________________________________

We woke up early with an appetite for Yuba. I knew that the recent weather trend could really trigger something there and that today was supposed to be sunny and mild. Add to the equation last year's heavy stocking campaign and we've got ourselves a little fishing trip with reason to be hopeful.

I was a bit nervous about the perch situation, though. We only went to Yuba a couple of times this year because of those ridiculous little bait thieves. I suppose it wouldn't be too bad if we could keep a couple of deeply hooked perch, but all we can do is cut the line and hope for better results with the next cast. Honestly, I didn't think we'd go to Yuba again until next year.
________________

I went out to get the cooler in the car and noticed something a little strange. There was a layer of frost and ice covering my car. I couldn't help but take a picture.



Hopefully, things would warm up during the drive.

The sunshine made its way over the mountain tops while we were en route and was working its magic on the water once came into view of the lake.



There were actually quite a few substantial clouds that had formed from this evaporation. Pretty cool.

We pulled up to the Oasis (Sonia didn't want to go to Painted Rocks, this time) Campground and I quickly realized the other reason we hardly make it out to Yuba: $7.00 day use fee. OUCH! There I was thinking it was $5.00. Maybe that's why we go to Scofield so often (besides the girthy fish).

The water level is way down right now...It's not even high enough to spill.



The boat ramp is still submerged and there's still one dock floating, for those of you who might make a trip.

Sonia was still pretty drowsy and James was slumbering deeply in the caress of his car seat, so I thought I'd just go down and see what I could do before they became active. It's also a bonus to get in a few minutes of solo time before the family comes down and gets the distraction going.

I started flipping my trademark blue fox and had a couple of tiny chasers within a few casts. They didn't look or act like perch, so I'm guessing they were some of those brookies they planted this year. I stopped getting chased in that area, so I moved over to the boat ramp and started casting straight out.

Pretty quickly, I had one of those dinks on my lure and got it within a few feet of me shoes when it flipped off. It definitely wasn't a perch. It was really shiny and with the sun in my eyes, it was hard to tell what species of trout it was. I had another on with the same results a couple of minutes later.

I realized that my solo time was decreasing every second, so I swapped the spinner for a size 16 treble hook. I put my other trademark (minnow) on and tossed out in hopes of seducing a monster bow to the shore. I knew that there are also walleye and catfish in Yuba and wouldn't have felt too bad to end up with one of those instead. I also knew that there are pike in there, but pretty much counted myself out of getting one of those. Even if one took my minnow, the teeth would probably snip my line before I could get it to hand.

I let the minnow settle while I fiddled around with my other rod. I saw a lot of surface activity start to pop, so I rigged up with a dry behind a bubble. I only have 1 type of dry and I think it's a renegade. Anyhow, wrong fly for Yuba, this morning. I worked that for about 10 minutes and then notice the line on my minnow rod starting to straighten out.

This is what I live for. I absolutely love the suspense of having line jump out of my open bale while I wonder what could be on the other end. In the waters of Yuba, the list of possibilities is pretty long. That just added to the moment. I let the line go for a little bit longer than normal to up my odds of a good hookset and then shut my bale. I was surprised how quickly the slack pulled tight. This had to be a really nice rainbow. I set my hook firmly and instantly had a tug-o-war with whatever this beast was.

I gained a little ground just to have it taken right back for about a minute and eventually got it closer to shore. Still no visual confirmation, but I knew it was bigger than anything I'd ever caught here, previously.

My heart was racing and I started wondering if my drag was too firm. I didn't want my line to snap, but the creature kept taking line whenever I got it close. Finally, I got several explosive rolls on the surface giving me a brief, squinting glimpse at the silhouette of part of this thing. Still not sure, but I thought it was a huge bow.

Sonia noticed the commotion and brought James down (she was pretty much on her way anyhow). She asked me what it was and we both found out simultaneously that I had just caught MY FIRST NORTHERN PIKE!!! (Woot!)

I was very surprised that my line was still intact with the hook way down its throat like it was. I couldn't pass up this opportunity to taste some new flesh, so onto the stringer it went and it was time to stike a pose. (The first time I put it on the stringer, it fought the clip loose and I barely got it back...double clipped this girl.)



A closer look:



Wow. Another notch on the belt and another scratch off the list. I'm still tingling with joy.

Sonia started fishing with her worm/bubble combo on her new rod (I'm jealous). Quite a bit of time passed before she noticed any action. She had something going for a minute, but she still doesn't set her hooks well (even though I try to coach) and it got away.

She moved over by the dock. I put another minnow on, hoping for a rainbow or a walleye. She lost another one (she said it was big) and I decided to reel in and walk around with James for awhile. The only problem was that I was stuck on something. I tugged nice and hard and ended up busting loose whatever it was I snagged and reeled in the ancient sagebrush.

"How did I get myself wrapped up like this," I thought. The line was all over so many branches, I wondered if it was all mine. Then the bush tried to jump out of my hands. I looked down and saw some flashing at the end of some line (mine?) that came from the branches. Turns out, all that line was mine and a freakin' perch had stolen my minnow and wrapped itself up in this sage. Stupid perch! :lol:



Not bad for a perch. What I'm wondering is how the perch fit that big of a minnow in its mouth. Naturally, I cut my line and sent it on its way. I think it even lived because I didn't notice any belly-ups drifting along the surface for the remainder of our stay.

I was already pretty satisfied with my day and Sonia hadn't caught anything yet, so I put the rod down and went over to visit. Just as I got there, Sonia chased off the skunk.



Not exactly the greatest thing to pull in, but it was something and it fought her pretty well. I asked her if she wanted to keep it (just checking) and she winced and responded with an obvious negative. :lol:

Actually, the people fishing down the shore from us were reeling in carp left and right. The strange part was that they were keeping them. Apparently, they like to eat them and told me that the carp from Yuba taste a lot better than the carp from other waters they like to fish. Neat.

I recognized them from a previous trip to Scofield a couple of weeks back. I especially recognized their Russian accents. The man I was speaking with showed me their bucket. It had about 20 lbs worth of medium/small carp in it. Then he showed me his "fresh line". It had about 20 lbs of carp swimming on it. Check it out:



They had another "fresh line" in the water, but I'd seen my fill of huge golden scales. I congratulated him and went back to my area to pack up. Sonia was in the mood to leave and the wind had really turned on in force. I thought about going to the PR side, but Sonia didn't want anything to do with it. We decided to play it by ear for our next destination. I still had an itch for trout and Sonia would've been happy to catch something nicer than a carp.

Let me just say that cleaning a pike is no easy task. The inside edge of the gills are thin and sharp like razor blades and they have spines all over. It was a difficult endeavor, but I managed to clean it up with only a little of my own blood. :?

We head out and made it to Nephi before I had a whim: Nebo Scenic Loop. I could fish Salt Creek and any other waters I encountered while taking in the spectacular vistas afforded by a drive I had never completed from end to end. That's right. I'd never driven the whole loop before. I've never even been to Payson Lakes. I went to Camp Maple Dell when I was 14 and Devil's Kitchen when I was about 19 or so. Other than that, my exposure to that area was nil.

I was saddened to see how big of a scar the last fire left. We pulled off at the retention pond in Nebo Canyon and I flipped my blue fox into the brownish, ashy water below the spillway. I got lucky and a starving brown hit it.



I released the poor thing and hopefully it will find some food before the next guy sees it.

We thought about fishing the pond, but it didn't look too appealing. We took off looking for nicer water and scenery. Just a few minutes later, we turned onto the loop and we were glad to see this:



The water was crystal clear and pretty shallow. It was loaded with fish that were rising nonstop, but the clarity of the water really played to my disadvantage. The fish in each area chased my spinner for one pass and then spooked and wouldn't even look at it. Even though they were spooked, they kept rising arrogantly (little jerks :lol: ). It made me realize that sometimes, there just isn't a substitute for a fly rod. I thought about tying on my dry and attempting to whip it out far enough to get a strike with my spinning rod, but decided to go and hit the stream below, instead. I knew I could fare well on a stream with my choice gear.

I was wrong again. There were fish everywhere, but the water was so shallow and obstructed that fishing with a lure was just silly. Again, another perfect time to have a fly rod handy. I suppose I should dabble into that relm pretty soon. No biggie, though. There are other times that a fly rod just doesn't cut it, I'm sure.

So I didn't catch any fish in the beautiful spawning pool, but James got a chance to stretch his legs and have a snack and I caught something else that I noticed.



I can't believe that cute of a kid came from me. :wink:



That reminds me...Is americanforkdude on this forum? If so, sorry...Don't look.

:mrgreen:

Fishing was great, but now it was time to take in the natural beauty of a pleasant drive through the mountains.

I'd like to hike around up here, sometime.


Some gnarley red rocks.


A quick stop at the Nebo overlook.


Same spot, different direction.


First view of the valley 4500 feet below (thereabouts).

We took the turnoff to Payson Lakes for a shot at some brookies and bows, but were discouraged by a fee station and turned around. My wallet had already taken a beating, today.

We pulled over to eat some crackers and cheese ball and I tried my luck in Bennie Creek, but didn't hook up with anything. The water was really murky...Probably from all that melting snow upstream.

Another turnoff to Maple Lake, but another pay tube and ultimately, another big U-turn. No sweat. We had our meat for the weekend fish dinner and I was starting to smell my clutch. It was time to keep it in gear and get back to civilization.

All in all, a great day filled with new experiences and an overall positive outcome. I'm sure I'll make some time to wrangle up some trout during the week, so until then...

Happy Fishing, Humans. It's nice to be back.