skwalas on the yuba

By: Josh Genser

Settling up in the parking lot on Putah Creek last November, Mark Likos asked our guide, Ben Thompson, on what other waters he guided. He told us that he spent a lot of time on the Yuba River and recommended that we try it in February, when the Skwala hatch meant that there was great dry fly fishing. I think that dry fly fishing is far and away the most fun that can be had in fishing, so we signed up right there and then. Almost exactly three months later, at about 8:30 a.m., we were launching Ben’s boat onto the Yuba River just a few hundred yards east of the Highway 20 Bridge. It was what has been becoming a typical Northern California winter day: sunny with blue skies peppered with clouds that occasionally occluded the sun and dropped the temperature to near what winter should be. Ben said that the skwalas had been emerging in the afternoon, so we would spend that morning nymphing, and switch after lunch to our dry-fly rigs.

Nymphing on the Yuba was very much like doing so on the Lower Sacramento River: nine-and-ahalf-foot six-weight nymphing rods rigged with a strike indicator above three nymphs, usually an egg pattern, a rubber legs and a caddis pupa. Casting is water-loaded, which requires little technique or experience, and avoids the tangles and snags that would come with air casting that much line with so many hinge points.

The strikes on the Yuba seemed to be more tentative than are the strikes one experiences on the Sacramento, such that we missed several until we learned to be more trigger-happy. And then, of course, we had to deal with the adrenaline rush which caused us to set the hook too enthusiastically, breaking our flies off before we could even feel the fish on the hook. Eventually we calmed down and figured it out

The highlight of the morning was the catch of a twenty-one inch wild steelhead. Ben had put 5X tippet on the end of our lines, so we had to be as gentle as possible when reeling in these fish, but that steelhead really tested my ability to keep the tension on the line while not letting it break off. It took me at least ten minutes to bring the fish to the surface, with several false alarms along the way, where the fish would seem to be tiring, and then would take off, diving deep and running upstream.

As we ate lunch, we could see fish rising around us. “Rising” doesn’t do it justice: the fish were jumping all the way out of the water, like dolphins at Sea World. It really got us excited, but excitement is not always your friend in a sport like fly fishing, where timing is so important.

Even as we were watching the rising and jumping fish, we did not see any skwalas, but we did see a lot of pale morning duns. The pale morning dun is a small mayfly, whereas the skwala is a stone fly, small as stone flies go but much, much larger than the PMD.

After lunch we rigged up our dry-fly rods and Ben tied on his custom-made skwala pattern and we set off looking for the hatch. The skwalas turned out to be not hard to find, as they are weak flyers who, once we were among them, landed on the boat and on us as if to rest their weary wings.

A problem with winter fishing is that it’s been a while since the last time we were fishing with dries, and our timing was off. We both had a number of strikes but we seemed too fast or too slow on the set. Finally, Mark timed one right and hooked a nice fourteen-incher, and Ben got so excited that he jumped out of the boat with his net and chased the fish down so it wouldn’t get away.

Our float was only about six miles long, but the Yuba’s flow is relatively gentle, so Ben was able to row upstream so we could repeat runs over and over again, but that meant we found ourselves with over a mile to go before the take-out in the waning rays of the sun. So, we pulled out the nymph rigs again and, in just that last forty-five minutes, we caught five good sized trout.

The Yuba is not the prettiest of rivers. Decades of dredging for gold and quarrying have scarred the river and its banks. No river is ugly, however, and we had the pleasure of seeing bald eagles and wood ducks, and twittering songbirds flitted among the bushes and trees on the river banks. There were signs of beaver in half-gnawed trees, and deer crossing the river.

The Yuba has one great virtue: it is only about a two-hour drive from the Bay Area. There are few places to fly fish close enough to the Bay Area such that it can be a day trip, so it was delightful to discover such a productive location as the Yuba.

Ben Thompson may be contacted at bthompson30@gmail.com.

Maurrie Sussman of Sisters on the fly

Maurrie Sussman calls the West Coast of the United States her home. As a child she, along with her parents, Jesse and Mazie Morrison, and her sister Rebecca, spent her summers camping, fishing and touring the great outdoors. Mazie made certain the camping experiences continued even while Jesse, a Marine Corp colonel, was assigned overseas. These adventures helped create an outgoing and adventurous spirit in the girls. Sussman, as an adult, used this spirit and her entrepreneurial skills to create small businesses in the service industry. In addition to managing these businesses Sussman’s humanitarian interests in others led her to volunteer work with the Phoenix Red Cross, feeding the homeless at Andre House and working with AIDS projects. In 1999 she and Rebecca established Sisters on the fly, which has become the largest women’s outdoor adventure organization in the country. Sussman serves as president of Sotf and is President/Chairman of the board of the newly formed Mazie Morrison Foundation. The Mazie Morrison Foundation is dedicated to supporting women and children in their endeavors to succeed in any capacity, as represented by the spirit of their mother Mazie.