The Northern California Fly Fishing Board

The last two weeks I have been bouncing around to all three rivers. All of the rivers are fishing really well right now. This is the time of the year where the fish are hungry and the weather is forecasted to be really nice for the next couple of weeks. Check out the reports for each fishery below.

Lower Sac: The Sac is continuing to fish well. Those rainbows are continuing to gorge themselves on olive caddis. The pmd hatch is steadily increasing and will soon become the food of choice. Three days on the river last week all resulted in trips with 30+ rainbows to hand. I have been concentrating on the river between Anderson and Balls Ferry. For those of you who are looking to pull on a bunch of fish this is the time to go. Bring out the kids, friends, or loved one to catch a bunch of feisty rainbows. The Lower Sac should continue to fish really well for the next month. Hot bugs have been rubberlegs, king prince (16), olive dirty bird (16), prince nymph (16), and yellow sucker spawn.

Feather: The SPRINGERS ARE HERE! I guided the Lower Feather three times the last week and those half pound steelhead are in the system. This is a great option for those of you looking for fish that really pull hard. If you think the Yuba fish pull hard then you will be even more impressed with the Feather half pounders. Lately it has been more like trout fishing with each day resulting in 15+ hook-ups with fish between 15-20". However yesterday some of the larger fish started to show up. Two guys yesterday landed three 20" bucks, one 22" hen, and one 23" hen. The next three weeks on the Feather are going to be prime as the weather gets warmer and more fish move into the system. Hot bugs have been prince nymphs, Hogan's S&M, Hogan's Red Headed Step Child, and San Juan Worms.


Yuba: Over the last month I have been on the Yuba more than any of the other rivers. All I can say is that the river is back to its normal self. Right now most days are resulting in approximately 20 hook-ups. However the dry fly fishing has been really good. Most days right now we are getting 4-5 dry fly eats on each trip. The dry fly fishing is really technical but if you can get the fly to come down first to the fish they eat it almost every time. Currently there are lots of March Browns and the PMD's are just starting to hatch. So the fishing will remain solid for the next month. For you dry fly guys now is the time to go! Hot bugs have been copper johns, flashback pheasant tails, olive dirty bird, and Hogan's Clinger Nymph.


Good Luck & Tight Lines!

Thanks, Ryan.

Nice to hear the good word on the Yuba. The back to back floods a couple years back really had a negative impact on the fishery, but it's nice to hear that they Y has recovered. Thanks for the report.

don't believe the hype - yeah, it's a little better than it was a few years ago - but the yuba is a long way from recovery - 20 hookups with 2 anglers in the boat is a stellar day on the yuba these days - i'd be surprised if RJ or any of the other guides have 20 hookup days with any regularity. sure if you hit it right, it's doable - but it's not the norm. when i first moved to california (1993) you could go to the yuba and hit 20 fish as a solo angler with pretty good consistency, PLUS you'd get many shots at legitimate steelhead. these days, not so good. floods, yeah they hurt a lot - plus all the other politics, industrialization, etc. not to mention the clusterf*&ck of people that pound the crap out of it everyday trampling on redds, fighting fish for too long, yada yada yada. don't get me wrong, the competent angler can still have great success there, but i worry about the average joe who reads the boards and thinks they're gonna hit the yuba tomorrow, float from the bridge to the rod and gun club or sycamore and catch a lot of fish. if you want that - go to the lower sac...

Twenty hookups with two anglers is a pretty good day any place most days.

Besides, it's hard to float from the bridge to Sycamore CG on the Lower Sac.