me and acouple of my friends wanted to go down to Yuba and do some shore fishing. ive never been there before and have no idea where to go! does anyone have any suggestions? also what would be the best thing to use from the shore there? thanks
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Painted Rocks side has access to shoreline and state park also has good shoreline.
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[cool][#0000ff]Any special reason why you want to fish Yuba? It is not very good from shore this time of year. Not even very good from a boat.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There used to be trout in Yuba and it sometimes provided pretty good shore fishing for them. Very few trout left, and the perch are mostly out beyond casing distance. You might find a few bankhugging pike, if you walk around the lake, casting the right kind of lure.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Otherwise, about the best you could hope for might be some carp. They have overrun the lake and will take all kinds of bait.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]If you can tell us what kind of fish you would like to target, we can probably suggest a couple of better potential spots. However, nothing has been very good lately. Most waters are in transition from ice to open water and the fish have not settled into any kind of pattern. Still need some warmer water temperatures to get everything more active.[/#0000ff]
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Are the channel cats pretty much gone from Yuba, or do we not talk about them ???
we will just be down in that direction so we thought we might fish it. we wouldnt really care what kind of fish we would catch even if it is carp! would you suggest going to a different body of water down in that direction ?
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[quote Therapist]Are the channel cats pretty much gone from Yuba, or do we not talk about them ???[/quote]
[cool][#0000ff]There are channel cats in Yuba, but not nearly enough to plan a whole trip around them...unless you are good and lucky. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]This time of year they are still deep, like most of the other species. But, at spawning time they move up into the flats, in the brush, and a few knowledgeable catters catch some bigguns.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]After the spawn they are scattered all over the lake. Folks catch one here and one there, mostly while fishing for walleyes or perch with crawler rigs or vertical jigging.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There were a couple of nice cats that came through the ice at Yuba this winter. Good to see there are still some left. Hope they keep multiplying. [/#0000ff]
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[cool][#0000ff]There have been no good reports from anywhere since the ice has been coming off. Yuba will probably provide as good of fishing as you are likely to find elsewhere. Try soaking crawlers or minnows on one rod and casting jigs, spinners or crankbaits on your second rod...if you have a permit. The shoreline drops quickly into deeper water so keep trying casts to different spots until you find something...hopefully.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The NW corner, right near the bridge, is probably your best bet to find SOMETHING. And, you can park up on the road and walk down, without having to pay the state park fee. You can fish from the rocks to the north of the bridge, but it is not allowed to fish from the dam.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Attaching a couple of maps. Hope it helps.[/#0000ff]
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[cool][#0000ff]There are channel cats in Yuba, but not nearly enough to plan a whole trip around them...unless you are good and lucky. [/#0000ff]
i disaguree with ya on that.. [crazy] right now is a very good time to target the cats at yuba.. it's just very hard to get where they are with out a boat or promision from the land owners to get where they are.. if one can get up in the channel where the river runs in them cat's will be close to where the flood waters are running in.. there will be lot's of food running down the river.. and cats don't turn down easy food too often.. [sly]..
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Hey TubeDude, I read the post about the trout being gone in yuba. Ive only fished there once so i dont know the lake. I was looking at the stocking report on the dwr web page. It showed In 06 they planted 300,000 trout And 90,000 Tiger trout. In 07 they planted 45,000 trout. They were all pretty small from what i could tell. But they planted nothing in 08. Did the water level drop so low they did not survive? And what do you think the walleye and pike population is? There are some tournys planned for there. Do you think the catch is going to be tough? It seemed like the posts about yuba during ice on made it sound like the lake is full of perch. You think that is correct? Like i said i was only there once . And going back this weekend. The lake seems real nice. Just want to know more about it.[cool]
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[cool][#0000ff]Here is a TubeDude history lesson, at least as much as I can recall at my advanced age.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Near the end of a long drought, about 2003/2004, Yuba was drained down to a few carp filled mud puddles, to allow work on the dam. Some of the other fish (walleyes, pike, catfish) escaped upstream in the Sevier River and survived until water returned in late 2004.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Once the lake had water, trout were planted to provide an "instant fishery" until other species could rebuild their populations. No walleye, pike or catfish were planted. But, through Rocky Mountain Anglers and DWR, a bunch of perch were planted, both to provide future angling potential and to become a food source for the walleye and pike.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]In the short absence of predators, fathead minnows from the Sevier River found Yuba a great place to breed. Their population exploded and they filled the lake. You could see big clouds of them everywhere in the shallows. The rainbows ate lots of fathead minnows and grew big and fat...fast. By late fall of 2005 we were having 20 to 30 fish days on trout from 4 to 6 pounds...with some pushing 8 pounds. Fantastic.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]That same fall we were also catching lots of small pike...in the 16" to 20" range. Evidently a few big spawners had survived in the river and had done their thing in the spring. A few perch were showing up too, especially for folks fishing for trout near the bridge. Again, the minnows were everywhere and the perch and trout were glutting. No walleyes.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The following spring a few walleyes showed up in the DWR netting survey, along with a surprising number of perch. And, anglers fishing for trout were catching smaller trout and more perch. In fact, trout fishermen complained that perch were becoming pesky. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]By fall of 2006, the perch were everywhere around the lake, and there were fewer and smaller trout. The fathead minnows were also disappearing and were hard to find anywhere. The exploding perch population was sucking up the last remaining fatheads and the trout were having a tough time making a living. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]On one of my exploratory trips in September 2006, prior to the RAC meeting at which I lobbied to get perch fishing opened a year earlier than scheduled, I caught over 200 perch in only a couple of hours. And, to put a punctuation mark on it, I caught perch that had been feasting on the latest planting of trout fingerlings (see pics). So, first the perch ate all of the trout's food (fathead minnows), then they ate the baby trout. DWR declined to open Yuba for perch until 2008.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]In the meantime, the carp population has exploded too. Bajillions of those buggers and they are actively competing with perch and walleyes for the available forage (baby perch). The walleyes have had a tough time establishing the huge populations hey did in the past. The northern pike population seems much larger, in proportion, than it has been in the past, and big northerns eat small walleyes a lot. So, the walleyes are getting it from both ends. The other fish eat their groceries and the top predators in the lake eat the walleyes.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I am interested to see what the results of the DWR netting surveys are this year. But, based upon angler reports and conversations I have had with biologists and Yuba specialists, I can make a couple of rash predictions.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]1. The perch population is big, and seems to be at a stable point of producing enough offspring to feed the masses...without crashing...YET.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]2. The northern pike population is probably bigger than the walleye population...and will get bigger this spring with the high water flooding the brush for them to have a good spawn.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]3. The walleye population is not as large as anglers would hope. There are a lot in the lake, but as long as there is a good forage base, they will be more difficult to catch in numbers. The biggest hauls of walleyes in the past have been during the years just before a big crash...when the food supplies were almost gone and feeding was very competitive.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The apparent good news is that it looks like Yuba is going to be full for all of the upcoming spawning activity. Good for the perch, walleyes, pike and catfish. Unfortunately, also good for the carp. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]We who have fished Yuba through several boom and bust cycles have come to know that you have to take advantage of the abundance when the lake is healthy, but to not be surprised when a drought year...or greedy water users...drop the water levels and start the bust cycle.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Yuba is a big mud bowl, with little natural structure. All of the fish rely on the water getting up into the weeds and brush that grow in during low water periods. A difference of a few feet in overall lake depth, at spawning time, can make a major difference in the health and ecology of the lake.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]That is the short answer. The long one remains to be seen.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]PS...there are still a few 'bows in the lake, but they are all running scared and many of the survivors have big slash marks on their sides. Pikes loves troutskis.[/#0000ff]
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Thanks for the input on Yuba TD. I'm also very interested to see what the netting results are for the lake.
Looks like from your picture that the walleye pop wasnt too terribly bad for the 08, but I dont know if that net was supposed to be a full net or what.
Perch eating the bows is a sight to see!
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TubeDude, That is the best post i have seen on one body of water yet. It needs to be put somewhere. So if anybody ask about yuba it just pops up. Thanks for sharing. That was awesome.
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Hey TD, exactly what is mean't by "greedy water users"?
Wasn't the reservoir created to supply irrigation water? In fact don't the farmers that rely on that water to spuuport their livelyhood own that water? Maybe I'm taking this out of context but I think many people lose sight of the fact that most reservoirs in the west were created with the sole purpose of providing irrigation water for farmers. Not for fishing. The fact that we can then put fish in them and enjoy the fishery is nothing more than a bonus. Should the farmers be to blame on low water years? Maybe there is something I am ignorent about when it comes to Yuba's water.
[#0000ff]but to not be surprised when a drought year...or greedy water users...drop the water levels and start the bust cycle.[/#0000ff]
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[cool][#0000ff]That picture was provided by one of the DWR biologists who was there last year.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Since then, I have heard from a couple of sources that they only found walleyes in that one net and not many in others.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]DWR knows the lake well, as it goes through its ups and downs, and they have a pretty good idea where to set their nets to get meaningful samplings. If they did not find numbers of walleyes in other areas, it does not bode well for the population of that species as a whole.[/#0000ff]
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[cool][#0000ff]My understanding is that the water in Yuba is mostly owned and controlled by the power plant in Delta. It is not a farmers irrigation situation. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]This last year they sucked Yuba way down and kept DMAD reservoir full...for no explainable reason. And, from what I heard a lot of the water was just sent out into the Gunnison Bend wasteland to evaporate or sink into the ground. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Unfortunately, there is no "minimum pool" situation in place for Yuba as there is with many other lakes. So, if the power company wanted to drain Yuba at any time, they would be within their rights to do so.[/#0000ff]
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[cool][#0000ff]Thanks. I am anticipating that others with additional knowledge on the subject will add to it or correct any mistakes I may have made.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I am no longer a moderator and no longer have the ability to keep up the archives, so the best I can do is maybe make a PDF file with the words and pictures if you want to save something.[/#0000ff]
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[quote TubeDude][cool][#0000ff]My understanding is that the water in Yuba is mostly owned and controlled by the power plant in Delta. It is not a farmers irrigation situation. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]This last year they sucked Yuba way down and kept DMAD reservoir full...for no explainable reason. And, from what I heard a lot of the water was just sent out into the Gunnison Bend wasteland to evaporate or sink into the ground. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Unfortunately, there is no "minimum pool" situation in place for Yuba as there is with many other lakes. So, if the power company wanted to drain Yuba at any time, they would be within their rights to do so.[/#0000ff][/quote]
If this is the way it is, that really sucks hard. Because if its anything like a certain copper mine they are rather wasteful of water. Sure they "own the rights" to use it and so forth but some of these companies take it a little too far. I think they aught to have to conserve water just like we do for each of our lawns/houses.
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We had the same problem many times in Idaho. All the reservoirs were either created for power or farming and it seems their best interests never coincide with those of producing fish. Some parts if the rivers fluctuate up to 6 feet because of the fact they only dump through the turbines at peak demand time. The worst thing we have to deal with there on all the snake river impoundments now is the feds forcing us to dump lots of water to "flush" the salmon smolts to the ocean instead of taking on the tree huggers and killing the million plus arctic terns that took up residence on the artificial island the crops built below Bonneville dam. These terns have been proven to eat millions of smolts as they emerge below the dam disoriented. They are a non-native species and the tree huggers won't let them or the island be removed. Same goes with the sea lions that have taken up residence right in the fish ladders.
Fishermen are considered second class citizens and their $ and political clout minimized mostly because we are all so opinonated we cannot succesfully organize.
Sorry TD, I did not know Yuba was created for power generation instead of farming... Thanks for setting me straight...
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"Sorry TD, I did not know Yuba was created for power generation instead of farming... Thanks for setting me straight."
[cool].. [#0000ff]About what I would expect from an Idaho farm boy (like myself).[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]No sweat.[/#0000ff]
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Shallow flats on the north end of the lake may produce because they are the first places to warm and provide a plankton bloom which attracts baitfish and, in turn, draws larger predators. Chances are, the fish, particularly perch, are still running deep in the early and late part of the day because the water is cold, but don't overlook the shallows in the bright periods of the day. Sandy shallows next to deep drop offs can produce well when the weather warms up. Perch have poor vision, compared to other fish, so they aren't as light sensitive and will move into shallow water to feed even during the brightest part of the afternoon. In deep water the temperature will remain cold which limits zoo plankton growth and does not provide an abundant food source. Of course, if perch are present in an area, larger predators will be nearby as well. If you are still fishing, worms would not be a bad bet and perch meat is even better if you can get into them. If you are trying to establish a consistent depth where the fish congregate, you can tie a 16th or32nd oz. jighead with a small chartreuse curly tail grub jig and a swivel sinker a foot or so below it and work slowly over the bottom. It's all a matter of finding them. Once you get a bite tip the hook with a small piece of bait and continue working the area. If you cast parallel to the shoreline and drop-offs, working from deep to shallow, you will be presenting to many more fish. You may pick up some bonus smallmouth doing this as well. Hope this helps.[
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