Yuba River Outing

Yuba Yuba River River Outing Outing

By: Roger By: Roger Wachtler Wachtler

This years Yuba trip was a celebration on many levels. The Grizzly Peak Fly Fishers had not been on this outing since 2017. Before COVID ruined our plans last year, we were foiled by two consecutive years of very high water.

To tell you the truth, I was worried that might happen again when it started raining the week before the trip. But the weather turned, setting the stage for another truly great trip.

The club has been coming to this gorgeous stretch of river, which is owned by UC Davis, for many years. In fact, my first outing as a new member of GPFF was to this location. I can still recall meeting some anglers at the gate that morning, people who would make a big impression on me and have remained close friends to this day. This was also the first joint outing between John Muir TU and Grizzly Peak and one that I hope we soon repeat.

But this year we had special cause for celebration, as this was the first trip since the pandemic began. It was great to get out again on a river with friends and imagine a post-Covid reality.

For those of you who know the often-crowded stretch of public access to the Yuba around Rt. 20, the UC-Davis property is a ten- or fifteenminute drive to the northwest. Besides the obvious advantage of less competition for the fish, it’s a beautiful stretch of country and river, especially decked out as it was this time of year

Stonefly sunning itself on a warm rock - Photo by Roger Wachtler

Above: John Affeldt and his son fishing - Photo by Roger Wachtler Right: Mary Tealdi with her catch. - Photo by Mary Tealdi

with wildflowers and greenery. It feels very different than the public section.

I think the rains on Friday had the fish looking down early in the day on Saturday. The nymphing that morning was very good with hare’s ear, soft hackles, princes and Copper John’s. I focused on fishing a riffle up a couple hundred yards upstream of the parking lot. This riffle had a shelf and a sharp drop-off up top and fish were tucked up close under the shelf. As soon as the nymph dropped from the shelf they took it. I found several nice fighting fish here.

Around noon, the soft white clouds gave way to glorious sunshine. Just as Bob Woznicki had

Above: A real beaut | Below: Netted! - Photos by Jeff Breidenbach predicted in his talk the Tuesday before the trip, the hatches started up around noon, so I switched to dry flies and searched for rising fish in likely holding water. I had good luck, and I wasn’t alone. Just upstream from me, JMTU member Mary Tealdi hooked 5 nice rainbows on PMDs and a Missing Link. Others reported steady action on pinkies and parachute Adams, including a few 17-inch-plus fish.

On Sunday, it was hard to concentrate on just the fishing. It was so beautiful and there was so much to see. The full sun lit up the green hills, and flowers were everywhere. To add more distraction, a few eagles were fishing right in front of us. Some anglers stopped fishing to go birding, or just soak it all in.

While there was some nymphing success early, many people moved quickly on to dries. Sunday had many more insects in the air, and pinkies and skwalas brought in many fish. You could tell all hell was about to break loose, when a swarm of swallows surrounded you. At one point I’d let my fly out just six feet in front of me when a nice fish took the pinkie and bolted upstream. It jumped twice and snapped off the fly! If anyone had any doubt of health of this fishery, there was a spawning redd just in front of the picnic area with fifty, eighteen inch rainbows to watch.

All in all it was a fantastic trip. It was great to watch some master anglers at work. It was also really nice to see fathers and sons working the riffles and hiking the hills in search of trout. Thanks to Todd Pond for getting this outing on the books and Bob Woznicki for the awesome pre-trip zoom presentation.

See you next time. Roger Wachtler