Any recent Yuba reports?

[ocean]

Has anyone been out there lately is there still any water left in there? [:p]
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[pezvela]

Water is extremely low. Park ranger stated that it will start to rise now. One would think that the fish would be congregated with the low water, if they are, the bite is certainly slow. Last two trips produced zero fish or even strikes.

I suspect the perch fishermen are doing OK, but I don't know that for sure.

I'll be heading back down there sometime this week in pursuit of giant pike and I will post if I can manage a fish or two. I am not optimistic, however. The shoreline has receeded way beyond the salt cedar and other vegetation. Predator and prey alike have no where to hide.

Water temps are still high enough to keep the fish out of the shallow bays during the heat of the day. I'll fish the deeper open water searching for pike under the vast schools of perch and carp.

I think it will be several weeks before the fishing gets better, Note I did not say "Good". I'm certainly not going to catch fish sitting at home so I'll continue to spend long uneventful days trying different tactics and lures. All I want is a 25 lb fish, I'm confident there is one in there, but I'm not so confident that I can put it in the net. Tight lines
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[2fishon]

I was there last night for a family outing. I did fish off the shore by the dam for a little while. The water is the lowest it's been for several years. I caught a carp on a roadrunner, but not another bite. It's not looking good.
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[fsh4fun05]

I don't fish Yuba very often but it sounds like you do so I have a couple questions if you have the answers. Where is all the water going? How, in your opinion, will this affect the perch population? I was hoping for a couple years of good fishing but the low water has me concerned.
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[utwalleye]

I just got back from yuba the water is super low but there is a good amout of weeds still in the water. the water should start to come back up pretty soon. I think the perch will fine this year, all we can do is hope and pray.
later chuck
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[pezvela]

The water is going to the watgerusers around delta. Alfalfa, primarily.

As far as the perch, I have no idea. They are getting forced into an ever shrinking swimming pool. I have not experienced this, but I have read and been told that the majority of the perch are small. These are probably this years hatch. The water will come back up this fall, winter and spring and the perch, walley and pike will have cover for the fry or at least I hope it will come back up to normal levels.

I have given Yuba alot of thought trying to explain why the fishing is so slow. This is my theory: Dropping water has forced the fish into an ever shrinking environment, as noted above. There is an enormous amount of feed in this shrinking pool. Probably millions of carp of various age classes as well as tremendous numbers of perch constitute the prey base. The apex predators, pike and walleye have so much feed that it is difficult to entice them to strike a lure or bait.

This same phenomenon is taking place at lake powell right now. There is an over abundance of shad, trillions of them and the stripe bass are gorging themselves on the prolific schools of bait. Last year at this time you could catch hundreds of skinny stripe bass a day. This years fish are fat and healthy. The stripe bass will reduce the shad schools eventually and the thing you can count on is tremendous fishing next year.

Will something similar play through at Yuba? I have no idea. Much hope was expressed that this year would be a good year for both perch and walleye. This has not been the case and it probably wont be even with cooler water temps and rising waters.

Yuba has become an excellent state park something both the state and Juab county can be proud of, but since the trout were caught out it gets little fisherman use except during major holidays and then it is primarily boaters and not fishermen. It's a shame. IF the fishery could be brought back the park would be full again and people could enjoy their outing with a fish or two. I'm not saying turn it back into a rainbow fishery, but try something different and make it some kind of fishery. Any suggestions? Tight lines
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[ocean]

Yuba was the first body of water i fished when i moved to Utah 11 years ago. My first fish caught out of there was a 24 inch rainbow. I have fished Yuba regularly since then and to me these are the 2 main problems i see that cause its demise. One is not enough water second not enough cover once the water gets low. I dont see these problems fixing themselves in the future so we will have to live with what we got just my 2 cents.[:p]
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[utwalleye]

I will second that !!! all yuba needs is water and weeds and everything will be great. later chuck
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[pezvela]

I was back down there again today (sunday) for 7 hours. One hard strike that bit the tail off a swimbait. Water has risen a foot in a week according to the park ranger. Still down 30 feet according to my GPS.

The courtesy dock has been removed at the ramp at painted rock. I don't know why the Utah Parks department has to make it so difficult for boaters. There is no reason they couldn't leave them in until late October or November. I should be pissin' and moaning to the SLC office and I think I will.

Does anyone have any ideas how cover can be planted in Yuba? I believe that several years ago Christmas tree were bundled together and sent to the bottom, but I'm not sure of that.

It's getting late and I need a drink and to call it a day. Maybe some answers will come to me in the night and when I awake I will have figured out how to get the pike and walleye to bite. Slim chance, huh? Tight lines
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[fuzzyfisher]

it's not so much cover the lake needs.. it need's to have about 20 ton's of carp removed from it and there would be plenty of cover in the lake for the rest of the fish!

if yuba is ever going to be a great fishery that can withstand good water years and bad the carp need to be removed from the system..
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[pezvela]

There is no question that there are millions of carp in the reservoir and that they are a major obstruction in the process of improving the fishery. There is commercial value in the carp as noted in the Utah lake sucker plan.

With the water so low it looks to me like it would be an ideal time to remove tons of them and ship them off for sale. The F & G remove tons of chubs from Joes valley which must have something to do with the cutthroat fishery. The cutthroat and splake can't keep up with the prolific chubs so the state removes great numbers of them mechanically. Why not seine Yuba?
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