Fishing Forum

As usual I couldn’t sleep last night. The early evening was spent checking and double checking tackle. Finally convinced there was no more I could do in preparation, I called it a night and laid up most of the night in anticipation of today's events.

Brian Van Patten and I arrived at painted rock state park with the breaking of dawn. I have never seen Yuba so drawn down. The waters edge was 5 feet from the end of the launch ramp. We got the boat off the trailer, but not without some trepidation. The island is now a big peninsula and the waters depth 75 feet from the ramp was only 4 feet. We moved down towards the west end of the reservoir cautiously.

Eight rods and two fly rods were rigged and ready so we were casting almost immediately trying to take advantage of the early morning hours. The air temperature was 55 degrees and the surface water was 63 degrees. We dropped the electric motor into the dirty water and started working the shore line. Within 20 minutes I had a 34’” northern in the net and Bry had lost a bigger fish when it simply opened it mouth and came undone.


The crowds of water skiers were mostly absent. Two other boats were fishing. One was bottom bouncing for walleye and the other was anchored and casting. The lone fisherman that was trolling reported a few large perch for his efforts and we didn’t talk to the other guys in the tin boat.

Before the morning was over we had boated two northern, both on the small side and had lost two others that were much larger. Brian didn’t have a steel leader on and lost a real trophy when the fishes razor sharp teeth severed the line like a surgeons scalpel. We live and we learn!

The fish that I caught was severely scarred on his back. It looked more like a prop had hit the fish than teeth marks from another pike. It was the most beat up northern that I have ever seen.

Additionally there was a huge fish that we observed porpoising the shoreline. We spent a half hour casting to the cruising giant. He ignored our flies and lures. She was an absolute giant. I won’t forget her great length and girth for a long time. I have no doubt she would have broken the state record of 25 pounds had we been able to put her in the boat,

We were off the lake shortly after noon. I'll be up all night again, but tonight I'll be thinking of the monster I saw today.
[signature]

nice report!

i'll bet thats a Cormorant bit mark on your fish not a prop hit..

i have seen lot's of pike at yuba with such marks!
[signature]

That never occured to me Ron. I think you are right. I might have to get me some trained cormorats to catch those elusive northerns. Do they come big enough to catch 20 pounders? I might need California Condors or even tetradactiles (SP) Are they trainable?

The big fish I saw swimming around the shoreline would take a tryanosouras Rex. That fish was so big I would have had to take two pictures of it to get it completely covered.
[signature]

lol yeah that might be fun to train a bird to catch pike..

but i think they hit the pike becouse the pike stay up in the shalows a lot. and miss judge the size of the fish they are going after.. here is a pic of a pike i cought last year. note down by my Right hand there is a Cormorant bit mark.. now i know the bird could no way have eaten a fish that big! but still it tryed..
[signature]

Way to go! You are a great writer. I appreciate your detailed report and the pictures motivate me to try to fish Yuba once more before the ice freeze.
[signature]

The cooling water temps are getting to the northern's prefered range. The receeding water levels create a paradox. The smaller aquatic environment puts more gamefish in a smaller area, but it also congregates the bait fish; I.E. less work to feed and I also suspect it stresses all species.

Yuba will continue to be an enigma to those of us who love to fish for pike. All we can do is take what is given to us and hope for the best. Good luck to you if you get back down there before ice over.
[signature]