Capt. Brian Clemens:
**Yuba River**
* **Lower “Lower” Yuba:** Flows at 2700 CFS. The shad fishing has been pretty good. Water temperatures have dropped a bit over the past week as Englebright stratified (turned over), meaning the warmer water from the bottom of the lake during winter has now moved to the top, and the colder winter surface water has gone to the bottom, bringing water temperatures down to the very low 50s. But with more consistently warm days ahead (100s end of the week) and a full moon approaching, we should see more shad entering the system, and the fishing should really pick up. Expect the next month or so to offer very consistent and stable shad fishing. Once the shad season slows down, we’ll start targeting stripers, and after most of the shad have moved on, we’ll get back into trout spey, which was absolutely fantastic before the shad arrived.
* **Shad Flies:** Comets, Shad Crack, Wet Pinkies, Too Sexy, Bloody Maria, Lip Stick, Ronald McDonald
* **Lower “Upper” Yuba:** Flows at 3400 cfs. While these flows are higher than ideal, the fishing has been remarkably good. Whether you prefer indicators, dries, hoppers, hopper dropper, Euro nymphing or swinging flies, the fish are eager to take a well-presented fly. I don’t anticipate this fishery slowing down anytime soon, so if you get tired of shad, look no further, if stripers aren’t your thing, the trout fishing on the Yuba is a great option too and if you are sick of steelhead, well then, you better get reevaluated, just messing around, but the Yuba is a good call if steelhead fishing is a bit to slow for your liking.
* **Nymphs:** Rubberlegs, stoneflies, yellow sallies, caddis, mayflies, PMDs, worms, eggs, PTs
* **Dries:** Hoppers, Fat Alberts, yellow sallies, PMDs, caddis, stoneflies
* **Swinging:** Caddis, soft hackles, Euphories, Brindle Bugs, Lady Carolines, etc.
Capt. Ben Thompson
