First trip [sly]with of the year on water. Yea! Change our mind a the last minute from Utah Lake to Yuba. Read the ice was mostly off, decided to try for Pike and Eyes. Out a bit of a late start, getting on the waterabout 10:00. The ice at the part side is about 300yd out sluah the firm, you cant make it throught the pass to the Painted Rock side ice is still 3 to 4 inches thick maybe more. Tried hard baits, soft lure and other groups tried bottom bouncers to no avail for several hours. Troll baitcasters, deep divers and Storm's at 10 to 60 foot again no takers. Marked several schools of Perch so get back tracked on them would catch a few then it would stop, moved around till we picked a couple of limits. Was beautiful day water temp. was around 44, air temp. 48 and only a light wind. With the temperature get into the mid and high 50's over the next few day the entire lake should be clear as least pass able by end of the week. Sure was good to be on the water with running great.
Head to Louisiana[cool] on Monday to chase Speckle Trout and Reds. Looking forward to some great spring fishing.
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Good to hear you got into the perch at least thats something. I was there this evening and the fishing was horrible.I talked to a few people leaving as i got there and they were skunked.I tried for some bows first because i figured they would be getting close to shore right about now. Not a bite or a trailer.[unsure] So tried for pike nada! Then threw some of my walleye lures also not even a tap.Its still to early for yuba fishing right now but it felt good getting out and fishing soft water. Last year i was getting into about 20-40 trout a day in april.The thing about yuba is timing you have to hit it at the right time and place to catch tons of fish.The ice was deteriorating really fast this evening because the north wind was pushing the ice towards the south shore.It started opening up really fast so if the weather and wind cooperate yuba should be ice free this week.
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We'll have to get together sometime in April and give them a go.
4boats
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Also we caught all the perch at 55 to 60 feet on fat bottoms, surprised us that they were out there, they all puked up 3" plus fryers could tell the color to ID the type. Spoons and curly tails seem to the do the trip once you found them.
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Perch can be at any depths this time of year you just have to find them. During the summer i fish yuba on weekdays in the evenings sometimes on saturdays until the water skiiers start showing up. Yes we can get together and chase some pike and eyes this summer i cant wait!!
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We took the boat down Sunday morning to give it a whirl. Was suprised to see the ice. Launched and trolled for a couple of hours with n o success. Decided to work the north shoreline tight for walleye and northern. Wind came up from the southeastt and moved the whole ice sheet into where we were fishing cutting us off from returning to the launch ramp.
Finally we broke throught it and got back to the ramp, but it to was iced in. Fortunately the ice there was only about 1 to 2 inches thick and rotten so we got off the water with no damage to boat or motors.
After we got off the water the DWR guy came down to interview us. He told us that everyone else was doing about like we were...no fish no strikes. He also stated that during last sumer when the reservoir was very low the water got exceedingly warm and it might have killed the remaining rainbow. Who knows?
We were a little suprised we didn't mark more fish on the sonar. We did see what we thought were schools of perch but little more.
The ice will be totally gone, I believe, in a day or two and as the water warms the fishing should pick up. Even without a fish it was nice to have the boat on the water and enjoy the sunshine. Keep the wind to your back.
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Sound great, looking forward to meeting.
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How fat were the perch. I had a bunch of fat one through the ice but it was just do to eggs.
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Most were very fat both with eggs and their catch of the day. We had several that went 11 and 12" balance were the 9'ssh and 10". Will make for and nice meal using Pikemans super sauce.
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