Yuba Pike Help

[Voodohound]

Would anyone be willing to provide some help on what to use and where to fish from shore at Yuba? My 7 year old boy is dying to catch a pike, he seems to have a bucket list and Pike at Yuba are his next target.

We are headed there this weekend and just looking for a good chance for him to catch a few. What do Pike go after and where should we set up?

I'd appreciate any advice!! Thanks!!
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[badbob]

A couple of weeks ago I fished both sides of the dam, there was a man and his son on the north side catching a few but they seemed to want that whole stretch for themselves so I went to the south side but I got a look at what they were using, I don't know what it is called, it's a hairpin looking spinner with red spots, all I had was a super duper which is similar but narrower but it worked, I caught two in about 50 casts tried the narrows too, nothing. Here is a pic of one I caught and what it took.
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[Voodohound]

Thanks BadBob, I appreciate your willingness to share with us less experienced ones.

By the way, are Pike worth eating or just a catch and release target?

Thanks again!!
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]I'll pitch in here. This is a recovery year for the pike in Yuba. They exploded after the big drawdown a few years ago but did not seem to have any really good spawn years since then and the population dropped a bit. Some of the early arrivals got pretty big and provided some serious tackle testing. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Seems there was a good spawn the last two or three years and there are more young fish showing up for anglers. By next year we will be seeing more fish over 30".[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Pike are ambush predators. They almost always hang out around rocks and flooded brush to wait for small perch or carp to swim by. Then they rush out to munch them. Unfortunately, Yuba doesn't have very much structure...rocks and brush. So wherever you can find cover you can often find pike. The area on both sides of the dam outflow channel is popular both with pike and with pike anglers. But there are a few other spots around the lake that serious pikers learn over time.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Smaller pike will hit anything...large or small. They hit tiny jigs fished for perch and they will smack large crankbaits and swimbaits being fished for big pike. If you want larger fish you should fish larger plastics and crankbaits. Something between 3" to 5" long is a good place to start. For the biggest fish you can go up to muskie sized lures. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Almost any colors will work...sometimes. But plastics in white, chartreuse and fire tiger are best bets...with even black being a good color at times. In crankbaits throw perch, fire tiger or gold (baby carp). More important than color is presentation. Get it down where the fish are and wiggle it in front of them right...and you will get bit.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Pike are proven spinner lovers. They will hit a wide range of spinners and spinnerbaits. [/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]If you use bait, fish a whole chub minnow, baby carp or anchovy on a large hook...with a wire leader. Lots of different rigs to either soak it on the bottom, fish it off the bottom or below a bobber.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Pike are slimy and have a definite "pikey" smell. That turns some folks off. But if you handle them with a dry towel and then fillet and skin them you will have some good eats. The major problem is the "y' bones that run in a line along the top of each fillet. You need to learn how to cut along each side of that line and lift out the bones. After that the flesh is firm, white and mild. Good eats.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Keep a couple to try but a lot of anglers will thank you for returning the others. Yuba can be a good place to grow big pike and we don't have many of those in Utah.[/#0000ff]
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[Jazzperch1]

good info TD, i need to get down there and cross pike off my list of fish i havnt caught, i dont even care if its a 10 inch pike i would just like to see one in person.
this is somewhat off topic but has anyone heard of any perch being caught down there, it seems the lake the last3 years hasnt been producing really at all, maybe you know tube dude?
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]There are perch still in Yuba, but the numbers are very small. The lake is totally out of whack. Carp have taken over since the draw down. Perch were on the way back but without ideal conditions for spawning and survival they don't have much of a chance.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Perch need sticks and vegetation to spawn on...and for the newly hatched young to hide in. Only in rare years of high water at spawn time is the water level up enough to flood shoreline weeds and brush. So perch have to just spray their eggs around and the carp are right there to vacuum them up. Any perch that do hatch are also slurped by carp. You can see schools of carp herding perch fry into shallow nooks and then cleaning them up like tuna on sardines. The carp in Yuba are piscivorous...fish eating. They got no choice. They have to eat whatever they can.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]During previous Yuba cycles there was usually a balance established between predators (perch, walleyes and pike) and the carp. The carp were there in numbers but the predators ate enough of them to keep them in check. But when the lake was emptied in 2004 for dam work about the only thing that survived in quantity was carp. Only a tiny few walleyes and pike survived up in the river until water returned to the lake. And perch were replanted in small numbers. But the carp had a huge head start and they get reinforcements every year when Gunnison is drained and flushed down the river.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]There are some good numbers of walleyes in Yuba. But they have so much food that they are not the silly always-hungry walleyes of the days of old. Just before the last "crash" the lake was overfull of walleyes and the perch were almost all eaten up. Anybody could catch as many walleyes as they wanted. And two years before that the perch were unbelievable...with many in the 15 to 16" range.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Yep. Yuba goes through cycles. The current one is not exactly what we would like but there are a few desirable fish in the biomass. Probably your best chance to catch a pike in Utah without going to Redmond, Recapture or having to use all kinds of refined fancy gear.[/#0000ff]
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[Jazzperch1]

thanks TD makes sense, we need 15 or 16 inch perch back!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]The good old days.[/#0000ff]
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[inline "YUBA PERCH, NORTHERN.jpg"]
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[inline "YUBA WALLEYES - PERCH.JPG"]

[inline "YUBA NORTHERN - WALLEYES.JPG"]

[inline "YUBA GLORY DAYS PERCH.JPG"]
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[a_bow_nut]

I didn't know that the good ol days went all the way back to the ice age. LOL

I'm kidding of course.

Those are some nice piles of fish. Did they have saber toothed fish back then? You know like the tigers used to be.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]Used to use stone float tubes. Now there was a challenge.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Here's one o' them there saber-toothed cats. But still weren't no blue ones.[/#0000ff]
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[inline "A -CAT.jpg"]
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[Voodohound]

Thanks TD for all the info....AGAIN. You always have great advice. We'll try it out this weekend and let you know what we find down there.
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[Jazzperch1]

nice, hopefully it will get back to that someday>





tightlines
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[badbob]

Those pike are snowy white and tasty but the y bone is hard and difficult to remove, now that I've tried them I' d release the little ones because of the y's
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