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+--- Thread: A Day at Yuba (/showthread.php?tid=355536)
A Day at Yuba - LloydE - 08-08-2007
Utwalleye invited me to go to Yuba with him and Crossineyes to fish for the walleye yesterday. I have fished with them before and knew of their talents as walleye fishermen. In fact, Utwalleye was the one who took me to Deer Creek several years ago and taught me how to catch walleye there. Since then I have fished with both Chuck and Ken many times. If anyone can catch walleye these men can! I had to go to Yuba again to check out the walleye situation. This time we went in a boat—Chuck’s boat. In Chuck’s boat I knew we could go all over that reservoir and check out the walleye situation.
I teamed up with Chuck and Ken at the Orem Center Street exit at 5:30 am. We arrived Yuba about 7 am. There was a small breeze on the water. We threw a few crankbaits near the rocks just off the Painted Rocks boat harbor to see if we could catch the attention of some Pike. We were unsuccessful, so we boated down to the East Beach and started trolling bottom bouncers with crawler rigs. I caught the first perch, but was quickly followed by Chuck and Ken. In fact, we caught perch nonstop from the time we arrived until the time we left at about 4 pm. I have never seen so many perch. We started to run through the nightcrawlers like we had a nightcrawler farm. I put on a Berkley Power Worm so we wouldn’t run out of crawlers. I believe I caught as many perch on the plastic worm as I did on the real thing. We trolled all over Yuba from the Painted Rocks boat harbor to the main harbor/ dam, and back to Painted Rocks again. We crossed the reservoir several times in the process, and we trolled over areas multiple times that appeared to hold pike, and hopefully walleye. We never saw a walleye! We fished walleye point carefully.
While we were near the dam we noticed a lot of dead trout. We also noticed trout dying near the shore. I don’t know why!
In the afternoon Chuck hooked into a huge Pike. He got the fish near the boat and it broke or cut off his line. Chuck rigged up a crawler rig using braided line and went after another Pike in the same area. Wham! He boated a beautiful Pike. We took pictures of it and released it.
The wind was pretty bad in the afternoon. Chuck struggled to keep the boat where he wanted it, so we could keep the bottom bouncers where we wanted them. It was almost impossible for him to do so. He struggle with the wind, trying to keep us on course while constantly catching fish, and trying to put on new bait, after catching fish or after the pesky perch “robbed” the bait. After a while we decided to troll crankbaits. Again, we constantly caught fish. Sometimes the perch we caught were almost as large as the crankbaits we used.
We had a great day. We constantly caught fish, and we enjoyed each other’s company. Ken and Chuck are great guys! I had hoped, however, that someone would have caught a walleye. We were using walleye tactics and crankbaits all day long. The experience reinforced my belief that there aren’t as many walleye in Yuba as many people claim. Crossineyes (Ken) is more positive about the walleye situation than I am. He feels that they are there, in schools that we just didn’t find. I hope he is right.
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Re: [LloydE] A Day at Yuba - petty4life - 08-08-2007
dang those are some nice perch, nice pike to chuck[
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Re: [LloydE] A Day at Yuba - Jacksonman - 08-08-2007
Nice Report and Pictures! Where at Yuba did you hook the Pike and what were you using? Thinking about trying for them Thursday morning.
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Re: [LloydE] A Day at Yuba - wiperhunter2 - 08-08-2007
Nice report Lloyd, was there any perch caught over 12 inches?
Nice pike Chuck, how long was it? Any guess on the length of the one you lost? WH2
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Re: [Jacksonman] A Day at Yuba - LloydE - 08-08-2007
We spotted Pike in a variety of places around the reservoir. It is obvious that the Pike population in Yuba is better now than it was before they drained it.
Chuck caught his Pike with a bottom bouncer and crawler rig--hammered silver blade. He caught the Pike in an area near the brush on the opposite side of East Beach.
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Re: [wiperhunter2] A Day at Yuba - LloydE - 08-08-2007
The largest perch we caught were right around 12 inches. One might have been a little larger. Chuck's pike was about 32 inches. It was hard to tell how long the one he lost was.
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Re: [LloydE] A Day at Yuba - TubeDude - 08-08-2007
[cool][#0000ff]Excellent report, young man. If that team could not score at least one walleye, it looks pretty bleak for the "average" angler. I am guessing that when the water temps start dropping in September the eyes will be easier to find.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I also surmise that the dying trout is a temperature and water chemistry thing. No fresh water or oxygen coming into the lake and the past high daytime temps have got the water temps far above where trout are comfortable. If there is no cooler water with sufficient oxygen in the deep channel near the dam, then the trout will stress and die.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There was a dieoff last year too. But, the trout that did not die stressed enough that many of them became skinny and infected with unsightly anchor worms. Those we caught were not nearly as large, pretty and good fighters and the hefty trout of two years ago...before the perch ate all of the fathead minnows that were producing the big trout.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]You are also right about the pike population. There have always been pike in Yuba, for as long as I have fished it (over 30 years). But, for some reason a spawning population of pike survived the draining of the lake got a jump start on the walleyes to (apparently) become more numerous than the walleye...so far.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]I plan to make a couple more tubing treks down there before late fall. No trolling.[/#0000ff]
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Re: [LloydE] A Day at Yuba - Gumbo - 08-08-2007
Chuck, just curious why you didn't remove that pike from the fishery?
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Re: [LloydE] A Day at Yuba - Theekillerbee - 08-08-2007
Nice Pike! Good thing the state is keeping that place closed to keeping perch, as it looks like they are in trouble!
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Re: [Theekillerbee] A Day at Yuba - CROSSINEYES - 08-08-2007
I GET THAT THE PERCH ARE IN TROUBLE. WHEN WE HAVE SO MANY YOU CANT GET AWAY EVEN IN DEEP WATER THEY ARE STARVING AND STARTING TO FEED ON EACH OTHER. LOOK AT THE PICKS. I MEAN IVE NEVER CAUGHT PERCH IN YUBA IN THE LATE SUMMER AT 30FT. ANY PERCH IN THE OLD DAYS WOULD HAVE BEEN TOAST. WE DID SEE EYES BUT THEY ARE NOT GETTING WITH IT. BUT THATS WALLEYE FISHING. 1 THING I KNOW ABOUT EYES IS NO ONE GETS THEM EVERY TIME THEY FISH FOR THEM. NOT EVEN CHUCK AND MYSELF. HELL BRING OUT ALL LINDER AND HE WILL GET THE SAME RESULTS AS THE REST OF US. IM AM GLAD THE PERCH GET TO BE HARVESTED NEXT YR. BUT A 10 FISH LIMMIT ISNT GOING WORK FOR THE DWR UNLESS THEY WANT STUNTED PERCH. I LOOK FORWARD TO IT IN 2 MOORE YRS. HANG ON GUYS ITS GONA BE GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!! NO IT GONA BE YUBA. LOL
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Re: [Gumbo] A Day at Yuba - utwalleye - 08-09-2007
what am I going to do with it ? I only eat perch and walleye and kokes. that was the first one I've landed, not big enough for my wall. so why not let him live. a fish that looks that cool diserves to live. so thats why. later chuck
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Re: [utwalleye] A Day at Yuba - fshslyer36 - 08-09-2007
Chuck I agree if you dont eat them leave them
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Re: [utwalleye] A Day at Yuba - mactuna - 08-09-2007
Yes Chuck thats the way I look at it too, any fish that cool should live.
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Re: [utwalleye] A Day at Yuba - Majja - 08-09-2007
I also agree with this as well. I hate it when I kill something and it goes to waste. So I am very hesitant to keep anything but perch and that makes good bait, and taco's. By the way nice looking fish Chuck.
Majja
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