Thinking of heading to Yuba to try and catch a pike. Never done it before and will be strictly C&R, I promise.
I have a boat and was just hoping for a few tips for a successful day.
Any perch or walleye showing up down there? Last time I was at Yuba the perch were ginormous but that was a long,long time ago.
Thanks, Shane
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Cant help much with the Pike other than what has been posted here recently. The perch crashed at Yuba a few years ago and havent really made a come back. They are there but not plentiful. Same with the walleye there is an occasional walleye caught but not in numbers that would make you want to target them. I would probably stick to targeting pike and maybe some of those that have been successful can jump in with pointers. As noted in some earlier posts the carp are agrresive and will take many of your presentations in smaller sizes.. Good luck and let us know howit goes
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I'm no expert but the guys I fished with in the story used what is called a Tandem Spinnerbait tipped with a softtail swimbait in chartreuse I believe. We caught 12 that day 10 of which were on this spinner bait. Two days before they boated even more on the same bait. Here is a link to the website so you can look at them. I also know that Fish Tech stocked a bunch knowing people may want some.
LINK: [url "http://pepperjigs.com/pepper-custom-baits-products/pepper-custom-baits-spinnerbaits.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=10&category_id=6"][/url]http://pepperjigs.com/pepper-custom-baits-products/pepper-custom-baits-spinnerbaits.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=10&category_id=6[/url]
I know the bait comes in different sizes, my buddy prefers the 3/4 and 1 ounce heads. Not sure why? But he caught the most fish. Also, the bite was best for us early...I mean really early, we were fishing before the sun came over the mountains and the bite ended about 9:30. I've heard the bite is good the last few hours of daylight, but haven't been there during that time. Also, while we were fishing we noticed what looked to be a bait ball suspended in 30 feet of water? Not sure what type of fish it was, but the fishing was best when we noticed this on our graph. Our guess was that it was most likely small carp? Also, keep moving! We did the best in one small cove, but the biggest fish was caught in a cove where no other fish was caught.
I've always wanted to catch one on a fly, only tried once, but never caught any. Yuba can be fickle. Like I stated, we caught 12, but that in my mind is an extremely great day. I would be content catching 2-4 pike for three guys on a typical Yuba trip. Hope this helps....Adam
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We caught ours trolling a larger size (4") Tiger rapalla.
The spinner bait is an interesting idea. I have a couple of those I've not used in a long time. I'll have to dust them off.
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Just throw medium to large crank baits all day long. Cast towards shore and reel it in, change up the action here and there. If the fish are there, they'll bite.
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I'm no expert and I never caught a pike but I would recomened a mediem heavy to heavy action rod. And some lures I would to are mepps musky killer, mepps syclops, and other big lures. I would try cast close to the weeds and also I heard that pike like to hang out close to islands as well. I would use a flurocardon leader maybe about 80-100 pound test, so that the pike can't bite through it. I hope this helps. Good luck
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