05-26-2009, 03:16 PM
I have to agree with the fuzzyone !! There have always been pike in Yuba due to the connection to Redmond. 30 years ago, when I first started to fish Yuba, the water was basicly irrigation and although drawn down, not to the extremes that you have seen in the last decade. Yuba is now a storage for the Power plant in Delta and they have different demand scheduals than farmers and tend to use more water. Couple that with the drought, draw down for dam repairs, and you have the current situation. The only bright spot is that the Northerns will invade the shallows in the southeast end and munch on the young carplings before they get to big, but they also like the perch and walleye, easier to swallow. Another reason that there have not been that many caught, there really is not that many people that fish Yuba. I doubt that after ice out you would see more than two or three boats on the lake who were fishing. Yuba gets more use from the water ski crowd than fisherman. It got a boost for a short time when DWR was stocking trout, but after they stopped that, use went down again. A small dedicated number of Pike hunters will utilize it extensivly, but as long as the perch/walleye cycle is down, it will not get much pressure.
As to the structure, one of the last things that Charlie Thompson did as Central Region Biologist was to target Yuba for the placement of structure. Unfortunatly, several years after these projects were completed, the water users drew the lake down to work on the dam. With the water level low, most of the structure was exposed and some of our wonderful public set fire to most of it. To my knowledge, nothing has been done to replace these past efforts. Without places to hide, young of the year perch and walleye are easy meals for everyone at the table.
In spite of this, Yuba still is a great fishery, just changed over the years. Like Utah Lake however, it is an example of what happens when Carp run amoke !!!
As to the structure, one of the last things that Charlie Thompson did as Central Region Biologist was to target Yuba for the placement of structure. Unfortunatly, several years after these projects were completed, the water users drew the lake down to work on the dam. With the water level low, most of the structure was exposed and some of our wonderful public set fire to most of it. To my knowledge, nothing has been done to replace these past efforts. Without places to hide, young of the year perch and walleye are easy meals for everyone at the table.
In spite of this, Yuba still is a great fishery, just changed over the years. Like Utah Lake however, it is an example of what happens when Carp run amoke !!!