Frickin' Yuba!

[TroutBumDave]

So I got a wild hair on Sunday night to attempt some Pike fishing over at Yuba. I've never been there, so I had no idea what to expect. I watched a few youtube videos, read a bunch of reports, tied up some winner (ya, right) flies, and I was on my way. I was in the right spot and was using the right lures and flies, but the Pike just didn't want to play. My buddy just sent me this link, mostly to make fun of me: [url "http://www.ksl.com/?sid=21888819&nid=1112&title=ksl-outdoors-yuba-lake-pike"]http://www.ksl.com/?sid=21888819&nid=1112&title=ksl-outdoors-yuba-lake-pike[/url]

And of course, I was in that same area (painted rock) and I was using the exact same lures/spinners as they were. I must have had my depth wrong... or something? Grrrr. Anyhow, I'd LOVE to get back down there and try to figure out what I was doing wrong. I spent several hours trying to find perch as well, but couldn't keep the carp off my line. I had carp take the following -- in the mouth, mind you: Pheasant Tail, San Juan Worm, Backstabbers of various colors, Wooly Bugger of various colors, 5" Orange/Purple double blade bass spinner bait, White - brown - orange - and yellow/striped plastic swim baits, multi-colored marabou jigs, worms, and various tube/curly tail jigs. To say that the carp are aggressive is the understatement of the year. When it was all said and done, I bet I brought 50 carp to the net, with a dozen or so releasing themselves at the tube. I had fun catching them, but by 3 or 4 in the afternoon, it was getting frustrating. I also had a fish (never saw it, probably a carp) snap my 5 weight rod. Simply shattered the graphite. That's also a first, and for some reason, I thought it was freaking awesome. I fished and fished and fished, but no Pikers. In fact, the only non-carp I caught ALL DAY was one lowly channel cat. My highlight of the day was a new personal record for freshwater fish:



Just a hair under 32" and a hair under 14 lbs. The picture doesn't do it justice due to nothing to compare it to, but his head and shoulders were the same girth as the fattest part of the body, 18". He was a bruiser, and hit small brown/perch swim bait. It took me 15 minutes of fighting and I was positive it was a Pike, and then I saw the bugle-mouth. So .




(ya, I'm too cheap to buy a real scale, but this will do for a girl like me)

All in all, a great day. Got there at 5:30am, left at 9:30pm. I am sore, sore, sore. I can't figure out why my battery will only make it about an hour before it loses all power and dies 15 minutes later. My poor legs.

If anyone has any suggestions or tips for a pontooner looking to smack a few Pike, I'm certainly open to PM's, and would send many fishing blessings your way.
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[Flyfishinglover]

I hope they fish wasnt let go back into the lake []
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[flygoddess]

Sounds like my kinda day
(except the 5" Orange/Purple double blade bass spinner bait, White - brown - orange - and yellow/striped plastic swim baits, multi-colored marabou jigs, worms, and various tube/curly tail jigs.)[]
5 wt...really? For Pike?[cool] Actually it can be done if you keep the rod tip down and fight with the butt...little hard to do in a pontoon. [crazy]
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[bugs1]

Sounds like a trip I want to experience. Thanks for the post! I was in the same area at yuba a few years back and had a blast catching carp. A 5 wt is not big enough. Every now and then you hook onto a big one. What a blast! Check these bottom feeders out.
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[TroutBumDave]

To be fair, I had my 8 weight for the carp. I was fishing little flies trying to scare some perch into my basket. How was I supposed to know that those big suckers liked such itty-bitty flies? Anyhow, that was one of the coolest experiences I've ever had, so I'm pretty pleased with the results. I needed a new rod anyhow.

R.I.P. $5.00 Browning that I got at a yard sale 10 years ago, you did well.
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[bugs1]

I know-I landed this carp out of grantsville last year on a san juan-best fish all year. Then heres one from yuba_fun
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[FSBO_SLAYER]

That's one heck of a carp. I was recently having a similar problem with my sonar's battery. Turned out it was fried and I just had to get a new one. I need to be more careful about not leaving on the charger for too long I think.
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[MasterDaad]

Amazing the difference a few days will make in this sport.

I was in the same place on Friday trolling perch meat, Tiger rapallas, and perch cranks through the same waters and didn't get a bite from a carp.

But did get in two Pike.

I've heard and seen experiences like yours at Yuba though. I personally was expecting to pull in 3 carp for every 1 Pike.
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[drnympho]

I was in the same area in a tube yesterday with the same results. All I could catch were carp. There are tons of em near the dock as well. No pike. The few other fishermen I talked to were out trolling and said all they had caught was a 4 inch walleye. Only fun was being pulled around in the tube by the carp.
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[TroutBumDave]

[quote drnympho]I was in the same area in a tube yesterday with the same results. All I could catch were carp. There are tons of em near the dock as well. No pike. The few other fishermen I talked to were out trolling and said all they had caught was a 4 inch walleye. Only fun was being pulled around in the tube by the carp.[/quote]

I'm feeling a little better about myself now, thanks. I'm going to just chalk it up to the weird storms that have blown through the last few days and give it another go when things are a little more calm. May I ask what techniques and what lures/flies you were throwing at 'em?
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[drnympho]

Mostly caught them by the dock, some by the island. Was throwing tubes, flukes, spinner baits, spinners, rapalas,spoons, jigs.... While paddling around bottom bouncing a worm. I did talk to a dnr officer whom told me fishing had been pretty good for pike near the outlet. Also said the campground host had told him he caught 3 pike off the docks a few days ago. I couldn't entice anything but carp however. Storms rolled in around 3 and I got out of dodge
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[fstop2]

I'm no expert but the guys I fished with in the story used what is called a Tandem Spinnerbait tipped with a softtail swimbait in chartreuse I believe. We caught 12 that day 10 of which were on this spinner bait. Two days before they boated even more on the same bait. Here is a link to the website so you can look at them. I also know that Fish Tech stocked a bunch knowing people may want some.
LINK: [url "http://pepperjigs.com/pepper-custom-baits-products/pepper-custom-baits-spinnerbaits.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=10&category_id=6"][/url]http://pepperjigs.com/pepper-custom-baits-products/pepper-custom-baits-spinnerbaits.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=10&category_id=6[/url]
I know the bait comes in different sizes, my buddy prefers the 3/4 and 1 ounce heads. Not sure why? But he caught the most fish. Also, the bite was best for us early...I mean really early, we were fishing before the sun came over the mountains and the bite ended about 9:30. I've heard the bite is good the last few hours of daylight, but haven't been there during that time. Also, while we were fishing we noticed what looked to be a bait ball suspended in 30 feet of water? Not sure what type of fish it was, but the fishing was best when we noticed this on our graph. Our guess was that it was most likely small carp? Also, keep moving! We did the best in one small cove, but the biggest fish was caught in a cove where no other fish was caught.

I've always wanted to catch one on a fly, only tried once, but never caught any. Yuba can be fickle. Like I stated, we caught 12, but that in my mind is an extremely great day. I would be content catching 2-4 pike for three guys on a typical Yuba trip. Hope this helps....Adam
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[drnympho]

" I'm no expert but the guys I fished with in the story used what is called a Tandem Spinnerbait tipped with a softtail swimbait in chartreuse I believe."

Pretty much exactly what I tried, in chartreuse, perch, blue and white, both tandem spinbaits and buzzers. No luck for me. Of course I'm a trout guy and don't really know what I'm doing with pike. [reply][/reply]
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[a_bow_nut]

Got lucky and picked up this one today.



Was using a Blue Fox Bucktail Spinner in Fire Tiger.



My poor old arms aren't used to casting that big of hardware all day. Think that my arms just might fall off.
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[kochanut]

its always refreshing to see parents get their little ones involved with the outdoors, good job!
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