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There is enough open water on the west side of Yuba to launch a boat now. It's pretty well open from a little bit north of the state park all the way across the lake to the east. It looks like there's some open water at the narrows. There are several hundred yards of open water out from the ramp and around the dam. It looks like it goes quite a ways around the south side also. You could definitely troll for trout, it that's your thing. I tossed a spinner for about 1/2 right at sunup, nada. I then tried a jig on the bottom for about 15 min- all by the bridge. Never even got a hit. No fish surfacing.
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That sounds like the whole res will be open in a few weeks with these temps. I am curious to see if any tigers start showing up this year unless the perch desimated them when they got stocked.
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I'd bet those fingerling tigers lasted about 15 minutes. I'd bet the whole west side to the narrows is open within a couple of days.
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To the best of my knowledge, not a single tiger has ever showed up after the plant a couple of years ago. Not one by a fisherman and not one in the DNR nets. Northern pike food? Walleye? I don't think the perch were big enough at the time to eat them but maybe. In any event, they are gone and the state is out a c hunk of dough in an unsuccessful experient.
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I remember a post probably a year or two ago on one of the sites of someone catching a 5-6" tiger trout at Yuba. That was the only report I have heard of one turning up. Too bad they weren't planted two years earlier with the bows right after the dam repair. Then we would have had a state record for tiger trout out of Yuba.
Maybe they should plant a few of those tigers in Strawberry, Deer Creek, Jordanelle, etc - that would definitely get me up to those places even more.
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The perch were big enough and were eating those tigers when they got planted. Tubedude posted a pic of a perch spitting what looked like tiger out of its mouth. Wish they would have been a little bigger when they planted them.
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[cool][#0000ff]The two attached pictures below were taken in early September, 2006, when we were lobbying to get Yuba opened early. I guessed the trout to be a rainbow and a biologist confirmed that they had just planted a bunch of surplus trout fingerlings. I do not remember whether the tigers were planted before or after that...or what size they were when planted.[/#0000ff]
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great pic's. 1 picture = 1000 words. One of these days the state will wake up and take a look at where they are putting their trout and what size they are when they plant them. They spend all the money to raise them to fingerlings and them put them into the mouth of waiting predators. Very efficient.
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[cool][#0000ff]Yeah, Yuba is definitely not a friendly environment to trout of any size these days. Perch and walleye eat the fry or fingerlings as soon as they are planted. The few who survive long enough to attain any size are just light snacks for the bigger pike that are abundant there now...and those toothy critters seem to have a special fondness for the soft and spineless slimers.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]The major plantings of rainbows DWR dumped into Yuba after the BIG DRAIN became a short but fantastic fishery, before the predators got a good toehold. By the end of the second year the rainbows were growing big and fat on the abundant fathead minnows that had proliferated in the absence of predators. 4 pound rainbows were common and there were plenty of 6-8 pounders. 30 fish mornings were enjoyed by many.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Then the hungry yellow horde exploded on the scene and all the minnows were vacuumed out within months. No more clouds of minnows, and the big rainbows disappeared. It became tough to catch a 'bow over about 18"...and many of those were skinny and had anchor worms on them. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]These days it is rare to see a trout taken from Yuba and it has been a long time since there have been any big ones. As you said, planting trout is just a part of the predator feeding program.[/#0000ff]
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