Yuba-Sonnet April-2014

drawing by Mary Marsh

photo by Roger Williams

photo by Roger Williams

From Rose Bar to Blue Point,
cobbled path friends hike,
along a river rainbow,
Isoperla incite.

Yuba knows no ego,
flowing to sea,
its only desire to go.
I see,

Rises in view.
Rises to my fly,
trout feed true.
My Princess reel screams to cry.

This river on fire.
While Osprey kite,
trout feed without tire.
Into my net, trout with kype.

We all find bounty,
casting to rises.
Landing and releasing.
We revel in our prizes.

photo by Roger Williams

photo by Roger Williams

Yuba Tanka, April 6 & 10, 2013

Grass moon apogee.
Beneath, Leo ascending.
Slicks and glides fecund with fish.

Rhitogenia morrisoni.
With the heart of Regulas,
silver sides rise.

No time for lunch.
No time for afternoon coffee.
River ablaze once more.




Steak and Eggs:

Yuba River, saturday UC property and wednesday above Hwy 20 bridge.
weather,saturday am partly cloudy pm sunny, Wednesday sunny
Water temp 51 degrees, air temp 80 degrees
Flow 1000cfs
water visability, gin clear
Hours fished, 11:00am til 7:30pm
bug activity; March browns hatch noon-3pm
5wt single handed bamboo rod.
dry fly furled leader 16 feet long 4lb tippet.
Saturday 10 fish landed on March Brown dry fly and 3 fish landed swinging March Brown wet fly
Wednesday 7 fish on drys and 4 fish partridge and orange wet fly.

Yuba-Ku 3-8,9-2013

As the Osprey kites.
Brodiaeas and Ceanothus along the way.
Teal and rabbit fur glide and rise.

My cast web, connected.
Maybe it's me who's really netted?
Moon in Pisces,
go figure.



meat and potaoes:

Yuba River, friday below Hwy 20 bridge, saturday UC property.
weather, friday sunny warm, saturday am partly cloudy pm sunny
Water temp 48 degrees, air temp 70 degrees
Flow 1300cfs
water visability, gin clear
Hours fished, 9:30am til 4:30pm
bug activity; friday sporadic Skawalas. saturday March brownand PMD hatch 10:30am-1pm Skawalas about pm
5wt single handed bamboo rod, 4/5wt bamboo spey rod, now broken from a big fish not landed.
245 scandi line 12 foot furled leader. dry fly furled leader 16 feet long 4lb tippet.
3 fish landed swinging March Brown wet fly, Teal and rabbit
4 fish landed on March Brown Para/dry fly/emerger size 12
3 fish landed on Skawala dry size 12

Yuba-Super bowl flies 2-2-2013

Since my last post i've recieved at least a 100 emails regarding the flies I was using last weekend and what they look like. So i'll go ahead, by popular demand, and post pictures of the flies for everyone.

They're quite simple in design and in no way are of my own invention. Some are simple hybrids of typical traditional flies available at any good fly shop. The first fly is my variation I used for the Skawala stone-flys that were out and about when the sun was gleaming. I took Ralphs very productive EC Caddis, size 12, eleminated the hackle then simply added legs. If a fish would reject the fly I would then simply cut the legs off and wait until i saw the fish rise again and then sttart re fishing that area, and often the fish would readily take the fly on the first cast.

The other "dry" fly I used my dear friend Arata "Charlie" Kobata designed. He calls it The Little Brown Fly. This fly we're using as a BWO emerger. At size 18 and fished with lots of frogs fanny right on top its nice to have this 3 feet behind the Skawala when its casted farther than 20 feet from rivers edge.

The wet fly that was quite productive on saturday swung through the Foundation Hole up river, is a simple Royal Coachmen wet fly, except I changed the lead wing to a Teal feather that i think picked up on the few early Rhithrogena Morrisoni that I saw in the tailout.

Prototype 6 wt Yuba Swing Boo

Since i've been catching some really nice fish on the Yuba river lately i though i should have a photographer take some nice photos of the 6 wt spey rod and the tube before i gets to banged up from fishing.
last week i caught several nice rainbows one 18 and a 19 incher on the swing with variants of north country soft hackles. At the end of the day i landed a super, riffle charging 22 inch spring run chrome that really made the bamboo yahoo!
The Spey rod I wrapped in Olive Gossamar silk and tipped in black Gossamar silk. The guides are all Snake and H&H that i gun blued. I made the ferrules all of Brass on my lathe then those were gun blued as well. The bamboo was impregnated and after the guide wrapping with 4 coats of satin spar.
The rod case i built as a prototype for the rod is fabricated out of a product called PlyBoo from Smith and Fong. Its a 1/4 inch plywood, i then built the hex tube and the leather straps i crafted to hold the tubes top. the small acorn top i made on the lathe to match the ferrule toppers as well gun blued brass and maple.
Here are some pictures.

Swing Boo with the 22 inch chrome on the other end.

Yuba-Ku 3-30-2012

Sap moon spoolers,
willows wane.
Mourning cloaks dance.

Follow the swallows.
Hidden spreckeld fish become,
Rhithrogena morrisoni.










Steak and Eggs:
Water clarity was about 24 inchs in slack as well as fast water, however water was about 47 degrees. Phil and I fished below the Parks Bar bridge. I landed two fish, one a salmon smolt about 10 inches and one trout 20 inches both on a march brown soft hackle fly. The exciting part was trying out the prototype bamboo spey rod i just finished. The rod tracked very true and straight and the taper equation for the Grantham ETspey is a very nice 6 weight. I was using a beulah 350 elixir line with a 6lb 10 foot furled leader that turned over smooth. The large fish took the soft hackle right under the surface film with a dynamic splash and then ripped up the run with little time for me to think just strip line. There was a good hatch of March Browns along the seem between fast and slow water, I basically fished the run where swallows were feeding. The hatch started about 11:30am and died out about 2:30pm.