If this year rolls out as expected, the river fishing will be cut short due to high water temperatures and low flows. An alternative to fishing our beloved rivers is to fly fish on a lake. Some of the higher elevation lakes have excellent fly fishing for trout. Lower elevation lakes may have some planted trout and bass.
For some reason, fly fishers refer to lake fly fishing as ‘Stillwater’. Stillwater is more technical than river fly fishing. It also requires more patients.
I have little experience with stillwater, so I’ve been seeking some education.
For someone that may have very little experience with stillwater Far Bank has put together a learning center that includes an excellent video on finding success with stillwaters.
The presenter is probably the best teacher in the fly fishing industry: Simon Gaweworth. The guy knows his stuff lays it out to make it easily understood.
One of the current grand masters of stillwater fly fishing is Phil Rowley. I took a 20 hour virtual class that was put on by Phil. It was comprehensive and a bit overwhelming. Phil is a bit of a fire hose when it comes to presenting on a topic that he’s clearly so passionate about. The presentation was based on an Orvis book that came out later on. The book is excellent. I’m not smart enough to figure out how to get a fee for linking to Amazon, so here’s a no-commission link to Phil’s excellent book.
Spring has sprung on the calendar, and the rainbows are doing their thing at this time of year. That means some ornery trout, and with the water temps creeping up, feisty browns, as well.
When you’re out on the water, PLEASE be mindful of redds (trout spawning beds). You’ll find them in shallow, gravelly areas with a nice, steady current flowing over them. A redd looks like a shallow, scooped out bowl of cleaned gravel that stands out from the surrounding darker, weedier gravel. (See the photo above.) You may or may not see trout on the redds, but either way, just admire the trout’s innate desire to perpetuate the species and leave those areas alone. Whatever you do, do not walk through redds. Be careful where you wade.
Use the tool below to sort out your fishing license for any state, including California. Check out the cost of CA vs other states…We should expect more from our Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The tool is hosted by my friends at Angling Trade Media.
Take a look at the video of Pete Kutzer and Tom Rosenbauer of Orvis demonstrate how to easily cast and fish a nymph rig. We all learn to cast dry flys first, but in reality, we’re going to catch more fish with flys that sink. Subsurface nymphs imitate what trout eat most often.
As expected, the water is cold and the fish are on the bottom. I landed this 17″ yesterday below GoodYears Bar. It was hanging near the bottom. It and a neighbor took a heavily weighted jig fly that I came up with last year. I call it the Money Fly.
I fished for an hour (2-3). The water is cold and the fish are cold too. You’ll have better luck on the Lower Yuba. You may get a chance to throw some dry flys on the LY.
The snowpack around the Yuba Pass is light. When the heat comes, that snow will melt off quickly. At this point, it seems like we’re going to have another low-flow year. Plan on fishing May and part of June on the NFY. Unless we get a surprise storm, plan on fishing tail waters (rivers coming from the bottom of dams).
The Money Fly gets down fast and is buggy. This fly has been a consistent success on the North Yuba and other free stone rivers
On this common species (Agnetina capitata), you can see the clear segmentation, gills, and the stonefly’s distinctive profile. Photo by Bob Henricks, licensed under the Creative CommonsAttribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license
Fly fishing is a sport that often defines itself by the minute scale of the patterns that anglers present to finicky trout, and it’s not unusual to hear an “expert” brag about his success casting size 24 or 26 midges on tiny tippets. But at the other end of the scale are the stoneflies (order Plecoptera), a group of insects prized for their sheer bulk, which dwarfs that of most mayflies and caddisflies. A turned-over a rock on a freestone stream can yield several species of insect larvae, but stoneflies will immediately stand out because they are often several times larger than anything else. Imitations of these outsize larvae are favorites of anglers who believe that “big flies equal big fish,” as well as for those fishing during high water.
What’s in a Name?
The common name “stonefly” is almost certainly a reference to the kinds of streams in which the larvae of many species are found—freestone rivers that feature rocky substrate and well-oxygenated, clean water. It makes sense that the order’s common name should be derived from the most common habitat of the nymphs, since many stoneflies exist in the larval stage from one to three years and their discarded nymphal shucks are often found on stones in midstream or along the bank. The Latin name Plecoptera comes from the Ancient Greek for “braided wings,” and is based on the way the four heavily veined wings of the adult lie atop one another along the insect’s back. Strange that the insect should be named for its wings, since the large insects are such clumsy fliers.
Life History and Habitat
There are approximately 3,500 species of stoneflies worldwide, and they are widespread, found on every continent except Antarctica. In North America, there are close to 600 species, ranging from the diminutive slender winter stonefly (family Capniidae) to the monstrous Western salmonfly (Pteronarcys californica), whose larvae can grow to longer than two inches.
The Western salmonfly is a clumsy flier and a big meal for a trout. Photo by Phil Monahan
Taxonomists usually divide stoneflies into two suborders: Euholognatha, which includes four families in North America, generally hatch more heavily in winter and spring; and Systellognatha, of which there are five families in North America, hatch in summer. Of the former group, the ones that fly fishers will best recognize include slender winter stonefly and early brown stonefly (Strophopteryx fasciata). Systellognatha includes the giant black stonefly (P. dorsata) of the East and Midwest, and the classic Western salmonfly and golden stoneflies (Family Perlidae).
The stonefly life cycle involves an incomplete metamorphosis, which means that there is no pupal stage, and the nymphs look much like the adults. In general, the larger the species, the longer larval development takes, with some species spending three years in this stage and molting more than 20 times. (The stages between molts are called “instars.”) When it’s time to hatch into winged adults, most stoneflies migrate to the bank and climb out of the water before transforming; they do not hatch on the water’s surface, like most species of mayflies and caddisflies. This is one reason that nymph imitations are more popular among fly fishers than patterns that mimic the adults. Most of the time, adults are available to trout only when they are blown onto the water—which is fairly often, given their poor flying skills—and during egg-laying.
Because many Plecoptera nymphs get oxygen from the water via filamentous gills, they are intolerant of pollution. In fact, the presence of a healthy stonefly population is seen as an indicator of good water quality. This is somewhat ironic, since stoneflies are closely related to cockroaches, which are seen as evidence of filth. Although most species prefer swift well-oxygenated water, there are species that inhabit the leaf litter at the bottom of slow-moving stretches and even a few whose larvae live on land in wet environments.
According to W. Patrick McCafferty’s Aquatic Entomology, the oldest artificial fly on record was an imitation of a British stonefly adult. While today there are many popular adult patterns—the Stimulator chief among them—that number is dwarfed by the nymph options available to anglers: from close imitations, such as the Kauffman Stone, to more suggestive patterns, such as Pat’s Rubberlegs. Even a small Woolly Bugger, fished on a dead-drift can serve as an effective stonefly pattern.
The one common denominator among stonefly-nymph patterns is that they are usually heavy, incorporating weighted wire into the body or a metal bead (or two). Since stonely larvae are crawlers—and relatively poor swimmers—they stay close to the bottom, which is where your fly needs to be. Before emergence, many species migrate toward shore, and a nymph imitation crawled or swing from deeper water to the shallows can take trout or bass keying on this migration.
Hot Spotting or Spot Burning…the process of spreading information (generally on social media) that drives undue people to crowd and over-fish a certain spot. It’s not cool. Why? Overfishing can move the fishery out of balance, causing it to crash. Excess foot traffic can damage an area to the point of failure. The IG crowd that shows up may not have anything in mind except catching the big Brown Trout.
The guy in the above photo is posting a grab-n-grin photo on Instagram every two or three days. The problem is, he is clearly stating that the fish are all coming from the same three mile stretch of river that is an hours drive from the Bay Area.
Why would he do this? He’s a guide and he makes his living by selling people on the hope of catching a 20 inch rainbow. Ironically, he presents himself as a steward of the river and is quick to condemn people for fishing over spawning fish- while he guides people over spawning fish on the Lower Yuba.
Is posting about The North Yuba Hot Spotting? No. The river access is 38 miles long and I never mention anything that would get someone closer than 8 miles of what I’m talking about. The North Yuba gets very little fishing pressure per mile. If it were anywhere near capacity, I’d go dark.
The lack of snow and rain in January has left us with some pretty amazingly beautiful days. Of course, if this trend continues through March, we’re looking at another grim Summer. Fingers crossed for some percip.
I got on the river on Friday and fished for a couple of hours mid-day. I landed several really nice rainbows on a euronymphing rig. There here were some Blue Winged Olive Mayflys flying but not a single rise was seen. These fishing are hanging low in the softer water.
The water is cold for the North Yuba. Being cold blooded, this leaves these fish with lower energy reserves so you need to get your fly right to them. According the the late Jon Baiocchi, these fish don’t really turn on until the water hits 52 degrees.
Remember, at this time of year, the North Yuba is catch and release only and you need to use barbless hooks. The game warden patrols the river with an eye out for folks breaking the rules.
The Hellgrammite is a nasty aquatic inset that lives in the North Yuba. They are not as common as the Big Three: Caddis, Mayfly, and Stonefly, but they are in there and the fish know it. They can be confused with a large stonefly at first. If you see a couple of big pinchers coming off the head- it’s a hellgrammite.
The hellgrammite is a big meal for a hungry trout. If you’re after the big fish, this is your key to success. A dark brown Wolly Bugger with crystal flash is a pretty close imitation. Dead drift these in deeper pools where there is some structure for larger fish to hide.
The hellgrammite can live as an aquatic for one to three year before becoming an adult. Their presence is a good indicator of a clean and healthy river.
The adult of this is the Dobson Fly is a large flying insect- the look like giant moths with large pincers. These can be found around porch lights in the Summer months.
