Lower Sac & Yuba Rivers Fishable by the Weekend

I'm writing to tell everyone that the Yuba and Lower Sac should be fishable by this weekend. Flows spiked a little last night but it looks like the next three days are going to be dry. The rivers might not necessarily be clear by this weekend but they should be fishable. Remember you only need a couple feet of visibility to catch those rainbows. When the conditions are off color like that then the name of the game is large and bright flies. Fish eggs, rubberlegs, san juans, and larger nymphs. Hope this helps for those of you itching to get out there.

If anyone is interested in doing some last minute fishing then I have some more days that I am offering at a discount. Once again you get a full day of fishing at the half day cost of $275. This is a savings of $125. The days that I am trying to fill are Jan. 31 (Sun.), Feb. 10 (Wed.), Feb. 12 (Fri.), and Feb. 14 (Sun.). Let me know ASAP if you want one of these discounted days.

Tight Lines!

Special Guide Deal

For those of you interested I am once again offering my discounted rate on a guided fly fishing trip for the Lower Sac or Yuba Rivers. Pay the half day rate of $275 and get a full day of guided fly fishing. This is a savings of $125.

The days that I have available at this special rate are below:

January 8 (Fri.), 10 (Sun.), 12-13, and 18-19

There are lots of big rainbows to be caught on the Lower Sac. Fishing from Posse Grounds down to Bonnyview has been really good as fish fill up on eggs and baetis. The Yuba has been good as well. Most days hooking 15+ rainbows and getting about an hour of solid dry fly fishing in.

Let me know asap if you want to book any of these last minute dates.

New Year Special and Lower Sac/Yuba Report

Well our winter fishing is finally here. Rain, low water conditions, and big fish make for an interesting equation. Over the last three weeks I have been bouncing back and forth between the Lower Sac and Yuba Rivers. The fishing overall has been good. I wouldn't classify the fishing as great but plenty of action to keep one interested. Typically this time of year we get less shots at fish but the ones that are willing to play are usually big.

The Lower Sac has been fishing good on the upper drift from Posse Grounds down to Bonnyview. Typically this time of year I fish the upper drifts on the Lower Sac as the crowds are light and those big rainbows like winter conditions. So I don't have any recent reports on the lower river. Over the last three weeks we have been averaging about 20 rainbows to the boat. But what has been cool about the fishing is that almost every fish is 17"+. The last trip I did on the Lower Sac we boated 23 rainbows and only 4 of them were under 17". I often times forget how fat those fish get on the upper drift. The hot flies have been eggs, Hogan's S&M (16), Hogan's Red Headed Step Child (16), King Prince (16), and Micro May (18). The best fishing on the Lower Sac has been between 10AM and 3PM. With a consistent baetis hatch coming off in the middle of the day between noon and 2PM.

The Lower Yuba is back to its typical winter self. Most days right now I am averaging about 15+ hookups on the river. There have been lots of people wading above the bridge and as well by Hammond Grove. If you get lucky enough there have been some big hatches in the middle of the day. Yesterday there was a big hatch of baetis and a creamy yellow PMD. There were fish all over the flats and tail outs feeding on both duns and emergers. Be wary though fishing small dries on the flats is not an easy game. It can become very frustrating so take your time and make every presentation count. The hot bugs on the Yuba have been eggs, Flashback PT (16), Hogan's S&M (16), and Hogan's Military May (16). It seems like the majority of the feeding fish are in the faster more riffle looking water. Cover lots of water to find those handful of feeding fish. Expect to start seeing the first Skwalas on the Yuba by the 2nd or 3rd week of January.

This winter I am offering my normal special. If you book 2 trips by March 15th you get a third trip free. The only catch is that all three trips must be completed by March 15th. So you can fish the Lower Sac in January for those big rainbows, the Yuba in February during the Skwala hatch, and then the caddis hatch in March on the Lower Sac. Or you can spend three days in a row on any of the rivers I guide. Its completely up to you. Hook up with a friend and split the special. Or take all three days for yourself!!!

Contact me ASAP to get prime dates.

Fish Hard.

Lower Sac, Yuba, and Feather Report

Well..... it has been awhile since my last fishing report. So I thought that I would get you guys some good info on what is going on in some of our valley rivers. Needless to say the fishing the last couple of weeks has been extremely inconsistent. You get one good day of fishing mixed in with a couple of hard days. Which is really typical of the fishing during the post egg bite in the middle to the end of November. I have to admit though that after six weeks of really good fishing it felt like I was getting beat up out there. Guess that is part of the game. So what is going on exactly?

Lower Sac: The Lower Sac has been up and down over the last couple of weeks. It seems like good days right now on the Lower Sac you are catching 25+ trout and the bad ones you are barely scratching double digits. There have been several days in the last week where we have only landed 10-15 rainbows. Pretty darn tough for the Lower Sac. It doesn't seem like one drift is doing any better than another. I have floated from Posse to Bonny, Anderson to Balls, Barge to Bend, and Red Bluff to Los Molinos in the last couple of weeks and all of the drifts are fishing about the same. Of course the upper drifts have bigger trout on average but the lower drifts are giving shots at steelhead. The hot bugs of late have been Hogan's S&M (16), Black Micro May (18), King Prince (16), and the Rubberlegs on lower drifts. Expect the fishing to improve about the middle of December when the winter salmon show up and the baetis start to hatch. This time of year the more clouds and even a little sprinkle is the best. Stay away Sunshine!!!

Yuba: I have not been on the Yuba over the last three weeks because of trips on the Lower Sac and Feather. So I dont have tons of current info for you guys. Talking to other guides it sounds like the fishing on the Yuba has gotten tough as well. Sounds like small bugs (Hogan's Military May, Hogan's S&M, PT's, Gidgets, etc.) in the flats have been the ticket. Still a handful of fish eating eggs behind any late salmon. Expect lots of people there in the next week as the river opens up above highway 20 bridge. Fishing should start to improve on the Yuba in the next couple of weeks. If you get lucky to have a rainy day watch for huge hatches of baetis getting those fish working on the surface. Gotta love trying to find small dries admist the falling rain.

Feather: The Feather has had a dismal year. I did about 5 trips over there during the middle of November and the fish we just not there. It seems like this year the fishing in the spring time (March & April) was better than the fall fishing. I the 5 trips I did there we only caught a handful of adults. Most days we ended up catching between 4-6 half pounders and a stray adult here and there. But none of the adults that we got were really big fish. There should be some fish continuing to trickle in for those of you who really are searching out some steelhead. The best bugs are going to be eggs, pts, Hogan's S&M, Olive Dirty Bird/Birds Nest, Hogan's Red Headed Step Child, etc. I am pretty much done with the Feather until the upper stretches open on January 1.

For those of you interested I am once again offering my $100 off guide special on Dec. 4th, 7-10th, and 13th. You get a full day trip at the half day cost of $275.Email me ASAP to get in on one of these winter specials.

I think that is about all of the info that I have. Hope this helps some of you find some fish that are willing to eat. The goal is to work together to find those grabby fish.

Fish Hard!

$100 off Guide Special

I am looking to book Monday, November 16th and Wednesday, November 18th. For anyone who is up for a last minute discounted trip on the Lower Sac or Yuba I will do a full day trip for $275. This is $100 off the regular price for the trip. You pay the half day rate and get an extra 4-5 hours of fishing for free!!! Email me ASAP at ryan@rjsflytrips.com if you are interested. Hope you guys are getting some fishing in.

The fishing on the Lower Sac has been pretty good. Most days on the lower drifts we are landing 20-25 trout and hooking one steelhead. The last week the fishing has been best on rubberlegs and egg patterns. It is an exciting time of year because when that indicator goes under you dont know if it is a 16" trout or a 7-8lb steelhead. Gotta love the mystery behind it.

I hope everyone is well!

Tight Lines!

Special $100 off Guide Deal

I am looking to book Thursday, November 5th. For anyone who is up for a last minute discounted trip on the Lower Sac or Yuba I will do a full day trip for $275. This is $100 off the regular price for the trip. You pay the half day rate and get an extra 4-5 hours of fishing for free!!! Email me ASAP at ryan@rjsflytrips.com if you are interested. Hope you guys are getting some fishing in.

Tight Lines!

October Lower Sac, Yuba, & Feather Report

Well......it has been a while since my last post. Lots of days on the water has been keeping me extremely busy. So I thought that I would give you a quick update on what is going on in the rivers that I guide here in Northern California. Hopefully you can find this information helpful on your next adventure. All that I can say is this has been a very interesting October.

Lower Sac: This week I was finally able to get back on the Lower Sac after a week and half of blown out conditions. This is the first time that I have seen the Lower Sac blow out for more than a day during the month of October since I have been guiding the Sac. I have been spending my time on the lower river between the Balls Ferry and Bend Bridges. The trout fishing has been good on egg patterns, rubberlegs, and red copper johns. Not lots of steelhead to speak of yet but there are some swimming around. I had a client catch a beautiful 26" buck on the river yesterday on a egg pattern. But you I am not consistently hooking into one every day yet. Expect the steelhead fishing on the Lower Sac to continue to improve into November as long as the water clarity stays fishable.

Yuba: With the Lower Sac being blown out for more than a week I have been on the Yuba a lot. I fished the Yuba 8 out of the last 11 days. There are quite a few salmon on the Yuba right now. I would actually say that there are more salmon on the Yuba than the Lower Sac. Haven't been able to say that for a few years. It has been a lot of fun to fish out there lately. Most days I have been throwing two different egg patterns below an indicator. The fishing has been really good with every day resulting in 25+ hookups. The majority of the fish that I have been catching have been in water between 1-3 feet of water. Those rainbows are in those shallow riffles looking for eggs. I kept trying all different kinds of nymphs without much success. Seems like they would always go for the egg first.

Feather: There have been rumors of fish in the Feather. Seems like most of the fish being caught are in the Low Flow section. I guided out there last weekend to find an extremely busy river. Needless to say we got our butts kicked. Only landed 4 half pounders. We did lose a couple smaller fish but there didn't seem to be that many fish in the river. The ones that we did catch came on a small green caddis nymphs. Currently there are not lots of salmon in the river. Expect this fishery to start peaking in a couple weeks. Typically more fish will start to move into the system during the first couple weeks of November. I am excited for what this season is going to hold on the Feather.

Anyways.......that is what I have seen and heard. Hopefully this helps some of you figure out where your next fishing should be. For anyone interested I have a couple prime time availabilities during the next month (Nov. 16-18 & Dec. 4th & 6th). Call me ASAP if you want to get in on these dates.

Tight Lines!!